Farewell

The Castalia Reading Series will be on hiatus for the summer, but will return this fall in the capable hands of William Camponovo, Matthew Kelsey, Matthew Nienow, and Josh Parish.

And with that, we'll let Prospero's farewell be ours, to you:

Now my charms are all o'erthrown,

And what strength I have's mine own,

Which is most faint: now, 'tis true,

I must here be confined by you,

Or sent to Naples. Let me not,

Since I have my dukedom got

And pardon'd the deceiver, dwell

In this bare island by your spell;

But release me from my bands

With the help of your good Hands:

Gentle breath of yours my sails

Must fill, or else my project fails,

Which was to please. Now I want

Spirits to enforce, art to enchant,

And my ending is despair,

Unless I be relieved by prayer,

Which pierces so that it assaults

Mercy itself and frees all faults.

As you from crimes would pardon'd be,

Let your indulgence set me free.

-Aaron Barrell, William Bernhard & Elissa Washuta, curators, 08-09

June Castalia

In the first half of this evening's reading, we hear from first-year poet Constance Hansen about the lessons of brotherhood a little sister learns; from second-year fiction writer Daisy Wilson-Morrow, whose voice--hers and her story's--carries us along unsuspecting until the moment we begin to feel ourselves, feeling; and from poet and Professor Emeritus David Wagoner, whose studied, compassionate poems observe the inner landscape no less intensely than the outer.

In the second half of the evening, we learned of the importance of batteries. Juice. Power. Devices that depend on them to work and record--or, as the case may be, not record--voices. As in, the voices of our final two readers: Simone Sachs and Evan Klavon.

Second-year writer Simone Sachs captures her self, and a not-so small piece of the world, on the page, hooking both up to a lie detector whose needle marks a steady, unwavering line. Putting both to a test of words.

And first-year poet Evan Klavon, who ends the evening--and this year's reading series--with class; thoughtfully and with intelligence, Evan offers anecdotal & poetic evidence of origins and inspiration from fellow writers. In doing so he reminds us that what we do as writers we may often do alone, but that we must go out and be alone together, often as we can.

photos of June Castalia