Dialogue

Dialogue: A New Hope

Dialogue1The student-run workshop, Dialogue, has rebooted and is back with a Vengeance. Organized by MFA fiction student, Tristan Durst, Dialogue meets monthly. Almost two dozen students attended the January meeting, Dialogue3: Dialogue with a Vengeance, with all three writing genres well represented.

Tristan creates a clever name for each session to set the tone of fun and wit, food is provided, and the workshop is kept casual. Volunteers read a few pages of their work aloud, and all are invited to give initial thoughts and reactions. Because Butler MFAs are all supportive of each other’s writing goals, the feedback is encouraging and the authors are appreciative.

Though many benefit from the workshop, perhaps the biggest draw of Dialogue is the community of writers. More time is spent in conversation, discussing writer and student life, and general shenanigans. Tristan says, “It’s a chance to meet people outside your genre or year, to share your work in an environment less intimidating than a formal workshop setting, and it’s just a nice way to unwind on Friday night.”

Come for food, come for laughs, or come for feedback. Whatever your reason, Dialogue is a great place to be. Dialogue IV: A New Hope will meet this Friday, February 19th, 6:00 at the ECCW.

Get spooked at A Dialogue Halloween

A Dialogue Halloween hosted by the Butler MFA Creative Writing Program at Efroymson Center for Creative Writing

As you may have read earlier this semester, your friendly neighborhood Dialogue workshop hosts low-pressure readings over the course of the year. Sunday evening, 5PM at the Efroymson Center for Creative Writing happens to be our next one. A Dialogue Halloween will feature five readers (shown above), a spooky, seasonally-appropriate theme, and free food.

What’s a little different than usual is that our readers have been invited to read stories from other authors, so there will be a nice mix of established authors and student work. Come out, show support to your fellow MFA brethren and sistren, and maybe consider signing up for our November reading! (No Thanksgiving theme, don’t worry.) Email me at zroth (at) butler.edu with interest.

Saturday night’s alright for reading

dialogue readingDialogue, Butler’s extracurricular, student-run workshop, hosted A Midsummer Night’s Reading 2: Electric Much Ado at the Efroymson Center for Creative Writing on Saturday, Aug. 17. Five readers entertained an intimate audience with a surprisingly evenly-distributed mix of poetry, fiction and non-. The participants were (from left to right) Tracy Mishkin, Chris Speckman, Mallory Matyk, Zach Roth, as well as (conveniently not pictured) Luke Wortley.

Tracy’s no stranger to Dialogue readings; I think this was her second, maybe third go behind the illustrious podium. Our audiences fall quickly for her plainspoken poetry, its mix of sardonic wit and sardonic weight. And her sardonic introductions. Really, she just sort of oozes a straight essence of sardony.

Chris Speckman is one of a few alums still participating in Dialogue after graduation. A dirty traitor of the worst sort, he’s eschewed his prose background in favor of more and more copious amounts of poetry. I’ll forgive it, though, because he has a nifty way with word choice and dresses sharp.

This reading was Mallory’s last adventure with Dialogue, as she’s moved away to Chi-town. Her CNF and memoirs are always a hoot. She’s never afraid to embarrass herself a little if it tells a good story. If I recall correctly, she shared the beginnings of her fireman fetish that night?

While we had a couple veterans up on the podium, it was Luke’s first reading. Period. He looked a little nervous, but once he started reading, a new story about rural Kentucky and ghosts, y’know, just regular stuff, the audience were quickly held in rapt attention.

I also read, but jeez, I’ve read three times now. I’m just hogging valuable reading slots at this point. Which is precisely why you should email me (zach.e.roth at gmail.com) and claim a spot at Dialogue’s next reading on Sunday, October 27! It’s Halloween-themed, and readers can either bring work from an admired author, a spin a scary yarn of their own.

Dialogue to host MFA reading

A Midsummer Night's Reading Butler University MFA

The difference between reading and hearing a great poem or story can be the difference between confetti in a bag at Party City and the magic of a million little paper snowflakes fluttering down at the end of a celebration. Though we all grow up to learn to enjoy reading, there is something much more communal and human about gathering to hear the compositions of storytellers who are worthy of their peers’ attention and of the words themselves. Jim Hanna, a third-year MFA candidate, knew from talking to his peers in Dialogue, the MFA student-run workshop group he coordinates, that this was an outlet the Butler program needed. So he created a recurring, casual reading series that serves as a complement to Dialogue‘s workshops that run during the year. The latest event, “A Midsummer Night’s Reading 2: Electric Much Ado,” takes place at the Efroymson Center for Creative Writing at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 17. The reading is open to the public.

“The Midsummer Night’s Readings, like all the readings we do, have two purposes,” Hanna says. “The first, naturally, is to entertain. Readings should be fun, so I often encourage writers to read their most provocative, funny, or poignant work.  The second purpose, because we’re all students, is to learn. These readings are attended by the same people you’re in classes with. These are low-pressure events. We’re all there to have fun, to be supportive, and also to provide an audience.”

For the same reason MFA students might encourage their Creative Writing Camp students to read their work aloud, the Dialogue readings are a chance for participants to hear how their work actually sounds, to listen to their characters come to life in front of an audience. Sometimes a tough, fast-talking wise guy is fun to write and seems natural on the page, but reading it aloud might make you realize you’ve just been ripping off Goodfellas for 200 pages.  “Readers learn a lot about their work when they read it aloud, or at least they learn something different than they would learn if they workshopped it,” Hanna says.

Of course, there’s another, more primal urge that motivates MFA students to show up to the ECCW during the summer months.

“The other great thing about our readings is the food,” Hanna says. “Everyone brings a dish, and it seems that an unspoken requirement of the program is that you must be talented in the kitchen. We’ve had some excellent spreads in the past.”

No pressure, first-years.

Hanna hopes to keep the reading momentum going for the rest of the year, aiming to put on two events per semester–perhaps aligned with the holidays to excuse the consumption of large amounts of food and/or chocolate. “We’re planning on having one around Halloween and one around Thanksgiving in the Fall,” Hanna says. “And probably another Valentine’s Day reading and maybe an Easter Reading.”

With both facets of Dialogue, the purpose has always been simple: to encourage writers to be active as much as possible, gathering, sharing, and refining their work in a somewhat-structured, supportive environment. 

“Our goal should ultimately be to outgrow the structures of the program, to become full-fledged, disciplined writers who will continue to carve time out of their busy lives, even though no one is paying them for it, and there are no more deadlines,” Hanna says. “But the truth is we all need support, no matter where we are in our careers. Which is one reason we’re open both to current students and alumni.”

Hanna welcomes both poets and fiction writers to join in the group. Culinary skill may or may not be a factor in your work’s reception during any given reading. To win the crowd over, we recommend bringing a very large jar of Nutella and 30 spoons.