MARY FONS- I feel that out of all the Writers’ I saw first hour Mary Fons was my favorite. Unlike others she was loud enough to be heard but didn’t end up screaming into the microphone. I think that her performance was better because she had her poems memorized so she could use the rest of her body to pantomime the actions as she was speaking them. What kept me interested was that she seemed very theatrical when on stage and changed her dialect so it wasn’t monotone. Her poems Father’s Day and Coat Check Girl were real experiences that came from the heart and I think that made her more relatable to the audience over all.

DR. SMALL AND MRS. EMILY HILL’S DAD- I was very impressed with both of these performers because neither of them are writers but they had written a wonderful story, both about life experience. It shocked me that Dr. Small didn’t like English class in high school. I would have though she loved the class because of the way she gave her story deciding to use the letters she wrote to her family seemed like the perfect way to present. It seemed like such a great taught English class technique. I never knew that her family owned a farm and I liked the way she built up the farm in the letters. Mrs. Hill’s father seemed to have stage fright at first, but once he started to talk about his family and how his daughter helped him in writing, his nerves calmed down. I agree with Tori about even how they were nervous so share with us, they set good examples for others who feel that they can’t write.

JONATHAN EIG- My favorite thing that Mr. Eig said about writing was to “ choose your topic wisely because you may be writing about it for three years.” I never realized how if you write a book, a likeable topic is crucial. If you don’t like the topic, writing the book wouldn’t be enjoyable and neither would your job. He seemed to be one of the most dedicated authors to his books in Writer’s Week because of how much length he would go to so that the facts were one hundred percent the truth. This includes him getting Lou Gehrig’s hospital letters to make that novel a little more personal.

STUDENTS- For me, a lot of the writers who got most of my personal respect this week were my fellow students. The first girl who went talked about her family dog dying in her arms. I felt kind of honored that she was willing to share this personal event with all of us and shocked how she didn’t start to cry in the middle of the speech. I also liked the speech given by Stephanie Fox. I liked how she went a totally different way than most of the students by writing as a male character in a book instead of telling a life story.

MR. ROMANO, MR. BREWNER, AND MR. ANDERSON- All of these teachers had a wonderful story to tell. They shared life stories and were happy to do so, and didn’t hold back. Teachers always make their students write and it was nice to hear a teachers writing for a change. I especially liked Mr. Romano’s story about breaking his leg and living with his very Italian mother. The end of the story when he tells is mother to keep the picture of her in Italy seemed like a perfect way to end the story with love. I liked how the story started out with him as the main character but by the end his mother was in the spotlight. It was a great way to end writer’s Week with some of the people who started it seventeen years ago.

I enjoyed Writer’s week this year more than last year. I think it is because as a freshman I didn’t really understand how amazing it all is with both professionals and students getting the courage to come up and share a part of them with 555 others in the room. Throughout the week while hearing all the writers’ and their stories it made me want to do it too. The styles were so different among others and no one was the same, it just goes to show that writing really does come from the heart.