This is me doing my two minute reading.
Thursday evening, I was invited to participate in a really fun event with the Quebec Writers’ Federation. Twenty-five writers were challenged to do a reading lasting no more than two minutes. Then each writer was to contribute a sentence or two to a short story which would be read out loud at the end of the evening. Welcome to “Rapid-Fire Readings, Ricochet Writing: 25 Montreal Writers Write Before Your Very Eyes”.
And there was wine…
Colleen Curran, playwright
It was nice to see some fellow authors who I hadn’t seen in a while, including Monique Polak who taught a workshop on writing for young adults that I took a few years ago. And, I was very happy to meet Isabelle Laflêche, who will be at Brome Lake Books with me on Saturday, May 2nd, for Authors for Indies Day.
Alan Silberberg, author and illustrator
They were serious about the two minutes. Lori Schubert, the Executive Director, was in control of ringing the bell when the two minutes were up. And that bell was loud! For the next 50 minutes, the hall at the Atwater Library was filled with prose, poetry, song and even illustrations.
Heather O’Neill, author
It was an amazing evening. Listening to authors and poets recite their work just adds another level of enjoyment. Colleen Curran, who wrote the opening sentence to the short story, had the honor of reading the finished product. She read it with such humour and gusto that it seemed the fragmented story actually made sense!
Below is the complete list of participants and I encourage you to research/Google them and their work.
Colleen Curran
Jay Winston Ritchie
Julie Barlow
PJ Bracegirdle
Ian Ferrier
Isabelle Laflêche
Christopher DiRaddo
Jason “Blackbird” Selman
Michael Blair
Mark Abley
Monique Polak
Carmine Starnino
Taqralik Partridge
Merrily Weisbord
Marianne Ackerman
Josip Novakovich
Erín Moure
Guillaume Morissette
Joel Yanofsky
Shelagh Plunkett
Alan Silberberg
Leigh Kotsilidis
Heather O’Neill
Kaie Kellough
Day's Lee 