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English Students Participate in Powell's North Reading Series

The Powell’s North Reading Series -- held on the 3rd Thursday of each month -- is a partnership between Powell’s, The School of the Art Institute, and Lake Forest College. Two students from one of the participating schools are selected to read their work, and also to “invite” an author of interest to the series, who reads as the headliner. Seniors Jessica Berger and Jacki Hale, winners of a contest from students in English 440 for the reader positions, gave readings on February 15.

Jacki read two stories. “A Woman of Few Words” is about a female protagonist who develops sesquipedalophobia — the fear of long words — and her self-help author husband’s attempts to help her with the condition. "Life in a Jar" is a fabulistic story of a woman who has an abortion, only to then raise her fetus in a jar as if he were an actual boy. 

Jessica read excerpts from her completed senior thesis, “Fluoxetine Bleak: A Dirge in 39 Parts" a novella that she describes as "a generational dirge fueled by fluoxetine (the primary ingredient in prozac) and various other chemicals, aides, and crutches. A sort of teenage prelude to some sort of  'fall of the roman empire' (though the content is definitely not young adult), running in dark, dreary circles."   

The headliner was Steve Tomasula, a short fiction writer whose work has appeared widely and most recently in McSweeney's, The Denver Quarterly, and The Iowa Review where he received the Iowa Prize for the most distinguished work published in any genre. His essays on body art and culture can be found in Leonardo (M.I.T. Press) and other magazines both here and in Europe. He is the author of the novels IN & OZ (Ministry of Whimsy Press); The Book of Portraiture (FC2); and VAS: An Opera in Flatland, a novel of the biotech revolution. 

The College will participate in the series at least once a semester in the future.