On Thursday, February 6, the chilly evening was warmed by the Chatham Creative Writing Club’s Spit Reel. An audience of about twenty faculty, staff and students gathered in the Welker Room of Laughlin Music Hall.

The event featured three undergraduate writers, and was hosted by senior Courtney Druzak,  co-president of the Creative Writing Club. Druzak began the evening with the disclaimer that it was her first time hosting–as the event’s usual host would be reading later in the evening. Regardless, Druzak did a great job of introducing the event and each of the readers.

The first reader was first year Indigo Baloch. She began with a short story based off the beloved children’s tale of Peter Pan. In this story, Wendy is all grown up and fighting the demons Pan created in her. Baloch then read two heartbreaking and beautifully written poems.

Next up was senior Jenna Swisher, who read a delightful excerpt from a longer piece about a zombie’s attempts to propose to his girlfriend–er–zombie-friend. The excerpt has all the makings of a sweet romantic comedy, but is set in a world of zombies. The detail of the piece was staggering, with Swisher using specific vocabulary that aided in creating the zombie-world. It was the perfect combination of sweet, funny, disgusting and terrifying.

The final reader was senior, and co-president of the Creative Writing Club, Meaghan Clohessy, who read a series of short essays from her senior tutorial about her adventures on her study-abroad trip to Berlin. Clohessy’s pieces had the audience nearly rolling on the floor with laughter that was due in part to the content of the pieces, and in part due to the dry manner in which she presented them. Biting with wit and humor, Clohessy’s pieces were, to understate it, extremely successful with the small audience.

After the initial readings, Druzak invited those in the audience to sign up for their open-mic portion of the evening, which consisted of five minute sections in which anyone could read any piece in any form (two were read from laptops and one was read from a cell phone).

Senior Catherine Giles was the first up to the podium, reading a piece about her redefinition of the ABCs. Next was Emily Kocian, who read a poem bursting with imagery and metaphors. The final reader of the night was Maryann Fix, who read a deeply personal poem.

Overall, the evening was a grand success, full of wonderful new literature and poetry. And to top it off, a great new crop of writers got a chance to share personal, hilarious, heart wrenching, tear-jerking pieces with an audience of appreciative readers and listeners.