Rough Drafts Reading Event: Students Share their Creative Writing Works
Fresno, CA-
The Annual Rough Drafts reading event took place on Nov. 14 at the Kremen education building at Fresno State to highlight the creative writings of first-year Master of Fine Arts students.
Founded in 1995, the MFA program provides students with advanced training in poetry, fiction and non-fiction writing.
Initially, the program required first-year students to present their works to pass up until 2010. Since then the San Joaquin Literary Association created Rough Drafts to keep the tradition going through volunteers instead.
The SJLA is a student organization founded in 2004 at Fresno State that promotes events similar to Rough Drafts such as literacy workshops and its annual spring event, WordFest.
The importance of the event is supported by MFA poetry students and event coordinators Isabella De La Torre and Amelia Holguin.
“This is the first time for most of them that they read in front of an audience, and having that supportive environment, it really helps with their growth and their confidence,” said De La Torre.
Holguin believes that the comfortable environment that first-year students have will hopefully inspire them to present their works in the future too.
Additionally, the event coordinators heavily encourage students to volunteer more and are always welcoming of new students and new creative minds.
“Regardless of what art or interest you have, don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. There’s somebody out there that will support you, and you have a community that will,” said Holguin.
Graduate student and creative non-fiction writing major Tere Joyce Randolph is one of ten of the readers at the event. Having presented, it felt like a sort of coming out party to her.
This is like the new frontier of doing creative works and writing, and hopefully it’s the first of many other readings,” said Randolph.
Her reading was a short story called Bad Car Karma in Hollywood. It reads as a psychedelic drama with in depth literacy imagery about abuse drugs and bad car karma.
“It’s kind of a blend of a story of being in an abusive marriage and going kind of coming through that in that time period of my life,” said Randolph.
“But also taking in half a tab of acid and tripping out in the Nine Inch Nails David Bowie concert and having to find my way home after reading a screenplay about the Wizard of Oz, which played out in the entire trip and journey.”
Randolph was also very encouraging of new readers in the space citing that Fresno has a strong writing community with writers dating back to William Saroyan, an American author and playwright.