Nadia Bolz-Weber

Nadia Bolz-Weber came to Lenoir-Rhyne University’s campus on March 5th. Along with many other writers, she was one of the amazing writers that is a part of the Visting Writer Series at Lenoir-Rhyne. You can visit Lenoir-Rhyne’s Visiting Writers Series to see what authors have been the Lenoir-Rhyne’s campus and who will be visiting there soon:http://visitingwriters.lr.edu/the-authors. You can also visit Nadia’s own website to see her amazing work: http://www.nadiabolzweber.com/.

Sadly, I was unable to attend her amazing interview, but others have said that she is a remarkable person and someone who is very unique and not like anyone else.

In my English class, we were given an excerpt from Nadia’s Pastrix called La Femme Nadia. At the beginning of the excerpt Nadia discuss how she was in a recovery center after being sober for six days. Throughout the excerpt she tells of times be drunk, using drugs, and of course, having poor judgement. On December 26th, 1991 Nadia decides to go to a church and sits down on an old sofa in the basement. A woman named, Margery passes by her and tells her that her shakiness will pass and tells her to pray every morning when she wakes up.

After reading this excerpt, we discussed in class who Nadia was. I would have never thought she was a preacher. At the beginning of the excerpt, I never expected for her to become a preacher be her quoting, “As we sat in a circle on the second floor, they talked about God, blah blah blah, and surrender, blah blah blah, and I didn’t buy it.”

When Nadia was a child she drifted away from church into a lost period of drugs and alcohol and has now become a pastor. Reading this, one question has came to my mind: what made Nadia drift away from the church and start using drugs and alcohol?

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Paul Muldoon

Paul Muldoon, a well-known poet who has published many collections, was featured in Lenoir-Rhyne University’s Visiting Writers series. You can visit Lenoir-Rhyne’s Visiting Writers Series to see the rest of our featured Writers that have and will make an appearence at Lenoir-Rhyne: http://visitingwriters.lr.edu/the-authors. You can also visit Paul Muldoon’s own website to view his works and get to know Paul himself:http://www.paulmuldoon.net/.

Our Creative Writing class was given Paul Muldoon’s poem, Hedgehog. Within the poem, Muldoon includes only one simile and one metaphor. He writes, “The snail moves like a hovercraft…” which is the simile, and the metaphor featured is, “We forget the god under this crown of thorns.”

With Muldoon’s poem being titled Hedgehog, a question that I have, and possibly other would as well is why start the poem talking about a snail? Throughout the poem, Muldoon compares the snail, the hedgehog, and Jesus to one another. They all show distrust to the world. The snail and hedgehog can both retreat into their shell or curl up in a ball.

Within the next few days, our class will be turning in poems that we have written ourselves. For some reason, I think most poems have to rhyme from most poems that I have read. Paul Muldoon’s Hedgehog has made me realized that not all poems have to rhyme.

Katherine Howe

Katherine Howe is a well-known author that has been featured in the Lenoir-Rhyne University Visiting Writers Series on Thursday Feburary 12th, 2015. You can observe many other authors that are a part of Lenoir-Rhyne’s Visiting Writers Series: http://visitingwriters.lr.edu/the-authors. Or you can also view Katherine’s very own blog website:http://katherinehowe.com.

Conversion is a book that Katherine Howe has written. Our class was given the prelude to her book with the title of SALEM VILLAGE, MASSACHUSETTS, MAY 30, 1706. The first thing that comes to my mind, even before reading the prelude, is that this book has to be about the Salem Witch Trials, but the Trials actually began in 1692. Which means this prelude is taking place after the Trials have ended.

In the prelude, Ann is waiting to see Reverend Green because she has something that she needs to confess to him. While waiting to speak to him, she contemplates on whether she should leave or stay. She says, “I should’ve gone when I had the chance; he’d never’ve known I was here (22).” She is very nervous about what she has to tell him by the details and description that Howe gives us about what Ann is feeling inside: “I feel my heart pressing against my ribs, and the top of my head opening, as if my soul were being ripped from my body by the hair (39-40).”

Many questions arise as I am reading the prelude. Most of all, what is Ann’s confession? What did she do that makes her so nervous to tell Reverend Green? Reading the prelude makes me want to read Katherine Howe’s Conversion just so I can find out what Ann’s secret is. Did Ann cause many innocent people to lose their lives by her accusing them of being witches?

Jesmyn Ward

Jesmyn Ward is a well-known author that has been featured in the Lenoir-Rhyne University Visiting Writers Series on January 19th, 2015. You can observe many other authors that are a part of Lenoir-Rhyne’s Visiting Writers Series: http://visitingwriters.lr.edu/the-authors. Or you can also view Jesmyn’s very own blog website: http://jesmimi.blogspot.com/.

One book that Jesmyn Ward has wrriten is called Salvage the Bones. An insert that was given to the class exhibited a short passage that expressed how a family’s dog was giving birth. During this passage, we are able to know who our characters are in the book and some brief descriptions about them. Jesmyn uses a great amount of figurative speech throughout this passage with the usage of metaphors and similes. For example, she writes, “Junior came out purple and blue as a hydrangea: Mama’s last flower.” She is explaining that her younger brother was born purple and blue just like the color of a hydrangea. Her mother did not live past the birth of her younger brother, which made Junior the last born child of her mother.

Reading this passage has interested me to want to read the rest of this book because Jesmyn acquires a great amount of detail that paints a picture in your mind of the events happening in her book. I do have two questions for Jesmyn about this particular passage. Did China’s birth of her puppies bring back the memory of her mother’s last birth of her brother? If so, was this memory postive or negative?