AMBER MATTICE
Life & Arts Editor
“I thought I was in love with a ghost, basically. That I was in love with a dead thing,” said Karyna McGlynn about her initial discovery of slam poetry.
McGlynn is a spoken-word poet and visiting assistant professor of creative writing and translation at Oberlin College. She is the author of two books of poetry, “Hothouse” and “I Have to Go Back to 1994 and Kill a Girl,” as well as three chapbooks, “The 9-Day Queen Gets Lost on Her Way to the Execution,” “Alabama Steve” and “Scorpionica.”
She was on campus on April 6 for a poetry reading held by Writers’ Ring. McGlynn is a longtime friend of one of the English Department’s visiting assistant professors, Josh Kalscheur.
Her arrival was fitting, considering April is Poetry Month and the English Department has been celebrating the literary form with several events across campus.
While on campus, she workshopped with students and visited classrooms, but the poetry reading was open to all students and the community and offered a unique experience.
Students and local residents were able to hear a successful poet read her work aloud and were also given the opportunity to ask her about her experiences in the field of writing.
“Not only do you get to see successful writers and what they’re doing in the real world, they also can offer you advice as to how you can get published and on your own writing and that’s really good feedback just to hear from professionals that you wouldn’t usually get to hear from,” said sophomore English major Sam McDougal.
McGlynn’s poetry is unique in the content as well as the style of writing and performance. During the poetry reading, she described it as “noir murder mystery.” She writes a lot about personal experiences, especially her youth and the struggles she faced and continues to face in areas such as fitting in, romantic relationships and a plethora of others.
Because of the general tone of her poetry, it would seem as though the audience was holding its breath while she read, obviously enamored by the way she read them and the quality overall.
After finishing a poem, however, she would bring humor to the room, saying things like, “You can clap you know,” and stressing the fact that she doesn’t like when poetry readings are uncomfortable.
McGlynn read mostly from “Hothouse,” which is to be published this year.
She encouraged audience contribution and asked for specific requests that people would like to hear. One student asked her to read her most painful poem. McGlynn read a new one that she wrote recently and introduced it by saying “it’s in progress, but it’s going somewhere.”
After this poem, McGlynn told people in the audience that it is important to “write stuff that’s hard for you to write.”
Once the actual reading was over, the floor was opened to a casual Q&A that everyone was encouraged to participate in. She went into the process of being published as a poet and discussed how it varies depending on the genre and type of story as well as why she writes about the things she does. Her insight was educational and encouraging for every aspiring writer there.
“As much as it’s important to be in a creative writing class and kind of immerse yourself in the community within those spaces, a little fresh air and a little of a different perspective can do a lot for some students,” said Kalscheur. “Sometimes it’s just a matter of hearing the same thing from a different person, in a different tone of voice, with a different angle that can really help things click for some writers.”
McGlynn sold several copies of “I Have to Go Back to 1994 and Kill a Girl” as well as almost all of her chapbooks that she brought with her. Students stayed for quite some time after the initial Q&A to get a chance to speak with her one on one and have her sign the books they bought.
“Whether they enjoyed my poetry or not is kind of irrelevant to me. What I want mostly is to give people a sense of artistic permission and a sense that poetry is not a dead thing. It’s a living thing, and there’s a lot of different areas in which it flourishes,” said McGlynn. “I want to give people a sense of energy … and vitality and bravery in writing through my performance of it … for their own sake.”