Stage Reading
Writers’ Club gives authors a live outlet
THE WILMINGTON CREATIVE scene is replete with artists of all kinds – musicians, painters, and writers alike. Writer and comedian BRIDGET CALLAHAN saw a gap in the creative scene and filled it – aside from University of North Carolina Wilmington readings or a few poetry readings in town, there was little space for readings in other genres other than general open mics.
“I may have a lot of courage,” Bridget Callahan says, “but even I’m not gonna get up and read a five-page story about killing a bird in between someone doing Jewel covers and a noise band. That actually may be a nightmare I had once.”
Thus, WRITERS’ CLUB began – an open mic for writers in all genres. The name may suggest a monthly gathering of authors working on their craft together, hunched over laptops or notebooks, but Callahan says it’s meant for celebrating writers of the area.
“Maybe I should (change the name),” she says, “because some people may think you have to be some sort of member to come. But on the other hand, maybe I do want them to feel like members. I do want people to feel like each show is a group effort, something that we’re all responsible for creating.”
The show is on the last Friday of each month at 8 p.m. in Old Books on Front Street, 249 North Front Street.
While writers hoping to use the mic should contact Callahan to make it onto the Writers’ Club reading roster, everyone is encouraged to show up and listen.
Ashleigh Bryant Phillips, a student in UNCW’s master of fine arts in creative writing program, has been to most of the readings after they started in September – either to share one of her short stories or to hear other writers’ works.
Phillips is an organizer of another authors reading program – The Reading Crew – during the school year. But that program is for the campus community, while Writers’ Club draws in a larger circle, which Phillips says she likes.
“I can speak for our MFA world here, we’re very much a bubble, and we don’t really get to hang out with writers in the Wilmington community,” she says. “What Bridget is doing is an amazing thing.”
She points out that readers at the Writers’ Club share finished works but also raw stuff that hasn’t been printed yet. “That kind of environment is so electrifying and gives me as a writer so much energy,” Phillips says. “I always leave those Writers’ Club meetings feeling inspired.”
Callahan says she hopes Writers’ Club will become an outlet for local writers to read the works that are close to them.
“I think it takes confidence in your ideas, confidence that what you have to say is worth other people taking the time to read or listen to. And confidence isn’t easy or permanent. It comes and goes. We get consumed with self-doubt; we forget to feel good about our writing, overcome the fear, and to have fun with it,” she says.
“We get all sorts of pieces read,” Callahan adds. “They can be tragic, sarcastic, funny, or dramatic. But the main thing is that everyone who reads is serious about writing. They care about it a lot. And getting to hear and share and listen to people who really care about something you also love is just always fun. Every single show we’ve had has been special.”
To view more of photographer Katherine Clark's work, go to www.katherineclarkphotography.com.
