Moira Crone reads her stories about New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina

(This article was written by David Pilon, Cameron University creative writing student.)

Award-winning fiction author Moira Crone visited Cameron University on Friday, September, 10 for a reading of some of her work, and I had the pleasure of attending. The reading was part of the continuing Visiting Writers Series at Cameron, which has included in the past such writers as Anis Shivani and Barry Graham.

Crone, a resident of New Orleans, read for us her short story, “Black Carpet,” about New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the effects of crises on relationships. Afterwards was a question and answer with discussion of her writing and her experiences in relation to New Orleans and Katrina. She offered some interesting insight on the disaster as well as into the current culture of NOLA and the increasing growth of the artistic scene there.

Two of her short story collections, What Gets Into Us and Dream State were also being sold outside of the reading. Her work sounds modern and relevant and seems also deeply influenced by her life and experiences in the American South. If you missed the reading, then you can read more about Moira Crone online and find some of her books on Amazon.

The next scheduled Visiting Writer event is Ken Hada on October 8 at the CETES building.

Second Saturdays are for Open Mic Reading

Celebration time! It's the second Saturday of the month, and in Lawton that means it's time for the Open Mic reading at the Unitarian Universalist Church.

Unitarian Universalist Church

@ 701 B Ave.

Saturday night at 6:30

Come celebrate writing with members of the Lawton area writing community. Share a poem, novel chapter, story, or plan for world domination. Everyone is welcome.

There will be coffee. There may be cookies; cookies often happen at the readings.

Last month saw poems, stories, news events, and musical/poetical collaboration.

Among the work I've read recently is micro fiction--stories told in 25 words. This form is gaining a lot of popularity on line, especially Twitter. I share my stories with several people, who also write some solid micro stories. I plan to read more of these at the readings. Here are three of my recent micro stories (or vss, very short stories).

"Momma, are we poor?" Georgie asked. Her mother smiled & touched Georgie's cheek. "Yes, we are." Georgie giggled and kissed her mom's hand.

The band you had come to see did not show. Their replacement was called The Sappy Trees. The singer had orange hair. You swayed slightly.

One day, George understood that he was in trouble, about to enter a downward spiral. He had lost his enthusiasm for birds.

(These stories by Aaron Rudolph appear on Twitter.)

Moira Crone reads her fiction Friday Night at 7:00

Novelist and Louisiana State University professor Moira Crone will read on the Cameron University campus Friday (September 10) in the CETES building.

Moira Crone is the recipient of the Robert Penn Warren Award from the Fellowship of Southern Writers. She is the author of four books of fiction, most recently WHAT GETS INTO US (read a review). Her stories have been selected five times for New Stories from the South: The Year's Best, and her works have appeared in the New Yorker, Oxford American, Image, and many other journals. She has degrees from John Hopkins U. (MD) and Smith College (MA).

Please join us for her reading which will take about an hour. Hear some excellent storytelling and meet others in the Lawton and Cameron writing communities. There may be cookies and coffee. If not, we'll owe you some.

The event is sponsored by CU Lectures and Concerts, the School of Liberal Arts,

the Department of English and Foreign Languages, and Sigma Tau Delta.