By Jonah Ruddock
On March 4th, the East Literary Digest met with poet Keith S. Wilson, author of Fieldnotes on Ordinary Love, over Zoom to listen to him read and discuss his work. The Digest is a club that has continued running from the onset of the pandemic, switching from a physical publication to an online one at eastliterarydigest.weebly.com. Advisor Mr. Huber said that although classes sometimes submit, “often it’s just students who want to submit on their own.” The Google Classroom code is 6yanxh5 for anyone who would like their original work to be featured in upcoming issues. The Digest also holds meetings on some Thursdays, and the Zoom links to these can be found on the Classroom page.
Sophomore Sophie Zhu, who is an editor of the Digest, said that one of her favorite parts of being involved with the club is reading other people’s work, “because you’re immersing yourself in other people’s ideas, and you’re showing inspiration, and that’s the whole point of being a creative writer.” She was the master organizer responsible for the reading. “I asked an old mentor, Keith S. Wilson… to read for us after school one day, and he said yes, which I’m really grateful for.” Sophie noted that his work includes scientific elements, explores familial relationships, and reveals his fondness for pigeons since he lives in Chicago. She described the reading as “a really great experience for everyone,” especially because of the question and answer segment at the end of the meeting.
Some of the Digest’s future plans include the Bulwer-Lytton contest, in which students compete to craft the worst opening sentence of a story. Check your WITSMail for more information regarding future issues, contests, and meetings.
