As a general rule, I don't care for readings. You know, the whole listening to someone read out loud thing. Lectures I can get into sometimes. I've been known to enjoy a few minutes of a talking head TV show while on a stationary bike. Radio interviews, okay. But I can't remember a time when I've gone to a public place to listen to writers read from their work when I haven't been left thinking, How soon can I get out of here? soon after I took my seat. I much prefer to read the piece, myself. Plus the atmosphere is often very pompous and humorless at book readings, and they tend to go on and on. I missed a chance to hear Christopher Moore read at UConn several years ago. His writing is funny, and I probably would have liked that. When I saw Margo Lanagan in person, she kept her readings, and the whole event, short. That was more than three years ago, and I'm still talking about it.
I start with all that to make clear how taken I am with the literary series described in A New Burlington Writers' Co-op Debuts a Literary Series, in one of my favorite Vermont publications, Seven Days. Susan Weiss, one of the members of the writers' co-op that sponsors the series says the co-op was formed, among other reasons, because "I wanted to find ways to be a writer within the community, not just when I’m sitting at my computer."
Ah, community. In this case, Weiss isn't just talking about community for writers, but writers becoming part of the greater community.
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