Guest Speakers

On Thursday I attended the Friendly City Reading Series in transitions. The program had two published authors come and read excerpts from their published works. Then at the end they stayed to answer questions that the audience had. I was surprised on how many students and faculty showed up for the event. I had not previously heard of either female authors but I found their selected readings to be very interesting. The second speaker, Gina Welch had written a book entitled "In the Land of the Believers." I found her writing and experiences she shared with us to be very compelling. Her memoir was about her journey to becoming a member of the evangelical church. She shared several excerpts from her memoir that were specific experiences she remembered in her bible camps and singles ministry program. I loved how her writing was enriched with specific details. She told a story with specific conversations and great detail. For example of the stories she added the fact that one of the characters was "chomping on his gum." In my writing I always neglect to add specific details like this, although they are not very significant I believe they make someones writing that much better. I thought she had an interesting story being that she was very anti-religious then decided to write about her journey into becoming a member of the evangelical church. I was fortunate to be able to attend the event, I enjoyed hearing the excerpts of both authors. I believe hearing and reading published works helps me develop my own writing in a unique way.