Last night I attended The Loft’s Student Reading. FFJ decided she was going to read and I was there for moral support and to see the spectacle of a Loft Student Reading.

About 95% of the readers were from John Berryman’s Advanced Poetry Class (they guy’s name isn’t really John Berryman because Berryman’s dead, but I can’t remember his real name), including Writing Group Mike which was a delightful surprise. Of course I didn’t understand about 90% of the poetry and the 10% I did understand I thought was a little bit on the cliche side.

I was telling Kelly about the reading and I came to the conclusion that literary fiction writers just have a different aesthetic than poets and creative non-fiction writers.

The best part of the evening (besides the cutie with the geek glasses who read a poem about cutting the lawn and the little guy who wrote about buying tickets at Wrigley Field) was, of course, FFJ. I’m not just saying that because she’s my Fabulous Friend. I’m saying that because she dazzled and charmed everyone in the room.

She was the last to read and she got up there and wowed the crowd. Before she even began her piece called “Another Roadside Tragedy,” she thanked each of the readers. She made a crack about how this reading was the best advertisement she could think of for John Berryman’s (again not his real name) Advanced Poetry class. She said she was honored and touched to be able to read with such a group of people.

She’s so classy and confident I beamed with pride and nearly wept.

Then she read her piece, like a female David Sedaris. People laughed and clapped and afterward everyone wanted to meet her. It was awesome to watch.