Young writers from Geoff Davis's senior creative writing class at Chatelech Secondary School gathered at Rockwood Pavillion Friday, June 7, to read their poetry, short stories and novels in progress before a small but appreciative audience.
The performance was the culmination of five months of work in and out of class.
Alina Blackett read her mesmerizing short story, Headlights.
Dixon Hunt showed a strong command of dialogue in the first chapter of his science fiction novel, The Vein Phenomenon.
Caleb Burnham and Magen Brewer also read excerpts from ambitious novels they are working on. Zoe Shaw read the first chapter of "what will hopefully be a novel," and Stephanie Schweighardt read from her romantic short story, Benchmark, which ends with the words "love lives on."
Kiera Wallace, so petite that she barely cleared the speaker's podium, had the audience in stitches with her poem, One of Those Days, and then reduced her parents to tears with her moving second piece, a poem of thanks she dedicated to them for their 35th wedding anniversary.
"It's not so much a gift," she said, "as a memory."
Kyle Brogan, who was introduced by MC Bella Casey as being "either really funny or really sad," did not disappoint. His first poem, On the Edge, was a haunting description of someone on the brink of suicide, playing "that last game of hangman."
He then proceeded to bring down the house with his next poem, For the Ladies, a brilliant parody delivered in wrap-around sunglasses and a ball cap worn backwards. During the ensuing applause, someone from the audience shouted, "Marry me!"
Kalle Laycock and Tarah Kalman were unable to attend, so their pieces were read by proxy readers.
Willie Knauff finished off the afternoon's performance by reading two thoughtful short stories, Going Home and Musings #1, the first inspired by "all the things my dad has taught me."
Some of these young people seem destined to go on to careers as writers. Who knows? Maybe a few of them will one day be headliners at the Sunshine Coast's prestigious Festival of the Written Arts.
