Personal Image.5

This weekend, I went to a “Fire and Ice” themed literary reading. One of our family friends was reading a piece of creative nonfiction, along with five other people in the Slow Sand Writers Society. The topics included nostalgia about ash trays, a step-father burning his son’s favorite stuffed animal, being trapped under snow in Antarctica, a reflection after a woman’s husband’s death anniversary, a story about the fish department in the grocery store, and a chapter out of a book about the 1920s. Each of these stories included varying degrees of creative nonfiction, each intertwined with personal experiences and intricate details. After listening to each of the readings, I couldn’t help but think about how much a person’s voice, inflection, and oral performance influences the way the piece is perceived by an audience. Despite the descriptive words and compelling stories, the ability to hear the story from the reader is more powerful in portraying their personal point of view than any other literary strategy.