{"id":15815,"date":"2018-04-18T08:35:32","date_gmt":"2018-04-18T15:35:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=15815"},"modified":"2018-04-20T09:24:47","modified_gmt":"2018-04-20T16:24:47","slug":"beside-the-point-journal-launch-showcases-camosun-literary-talent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2018\/04\/18\/beside-the-point-journal-launch-showcases-camosun-literary-talent\/","title":{"rendered":"Beside the Point<\/em> journal launch showcases Camosun literary talent"},"content":{"rendered":"

For several years, the Creative Writing department at Camosun College was silent, making no publication of its best output. But that\u2019s all changed: Beside the Point\u00a0<\/em>is a re-incarnated annual anthology of Camosun students\u2019 writing. Last Wednesday, April 11, we bailed out early from our fiction class to attend the journal\u2019s launch. (Beside the Point\u00a0<\/em>is available for purchase at the Camosun bookstores.)<\/p>\n

The theme this year is \u201ctime.\u201d At the launch, the writers gave readings as enticing samples of their works. Brie Fennell dared to break a rule in her story, \u201cDeath is no Longer an Option.\u201d The narrator of a story is never supposed to write \u201cand then I was killed,\u201d but Fennell defied convention, and the story makes even more sense when the reader considers its implications.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A launch was recently held at Camosun College for the Beside the Point<\/em> literary journal (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Benjamin McFee killed it with the rhythm and rhyme of his poem \u201cThe Killing Time.\u201d Katy Weicker (who is also a Nexus<\/em>staff writer) comforted us with aching truth in \u201cHourglass out of Reach.\u201d Nessa Pullman got philosphical and gradually turned up the lights in \u201cThe Aha Moment.\u201d In her poem, \u201cMulan,\u201d Anthea Gaunt painted a nostalgic portrait of the avatar she made of her childhood toy.<\/p>\n

How does a kindergartner experience Remembrance Day? Isabella Kennedy showed us how in her poem, \u201cA Minute of Silence.\u201d Some day you may read the sci-fi story, \u201cTime Watch\u201d by Truly Hunter, and you will puzzle over the motivations and dreams of a solitary scientist who may build a time machine that no one else believes in. It works, but will it work again? Will that be an option?<\/p>\n

Rachel Smith read the opening pages of her witchcraft story, \u201cHerstory of a Spell,\u201d after which I had to rush home to finish reading the rest.<\/p>\n

All the stories and poems presented onstage were impressive. I made a point of going around to each of the authors afterward: asking for an autograph on the page where their piece is printed is an important rite for both of us. Otherwise, these are only printed words on another page. But we are more than printers. We are writers. A cursive signature says: \u201cThis writer wrote this note to me. Their other words are printed here for anyone else to read at some future time, but in this present moment, this writer and I conversed.\u201d The writer\u2019s words are a record of a conversation in real time about the virtual conversation that is the written word.<\/p>\n

I write to join that virtual conversation. I’d like to get this review of their launch printed in Nexus<\/em>, and, if that happens, I’ll be just as thrilled if someone comes up to me and asks me to autograph my printed words.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For several years, the Creative Writing department at Camosun College was silent, making no publication of its best output. But that\u2019s all changed: Beside the Point\u00a0is a re-incarnated annual anthology of Camosun students\u2019 writing. Last Wednesday, April 11, we bailed out early from our fiction class to attend the journal\u2019s launch. (Beside the Point\u00a0is available […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-webexclusive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15815","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15815"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15815\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15822,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15815\/revisions\/15822"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15815"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15815"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15815"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}