Poetry Feature Emily Scudder

The first event with two featured readers and 10 readers on the open mic More HUCTW Writes! events are planned for the fall. Moderator Jim Henle Opening Remarks Welcome to the first HUCTW Writes! This is an event that struck me as being at once unlikely and perfectly natural. Natural, because once the idea came up, we all felt that there was an untapped community of writers in our midst that could and should be drawn out. Unlikely, because it’s not too often you will find a union-based literary event. We’re somewhat familiar with artists who support unions: Woody Guthrie comes to mind or, in the current scene, Bruce Springsteen. But for a union to support artists or a gathering of artists is more unusual. Yet it makes perfect sense. Generally unions focus on their members’ wages and benefits and their working conditions, as they should. These are the meat and potatoes of unionism, the proteins and carbohydrates needed to sustain us. But a body needs more than these staples; it needs also vitamins, which, while not as weighty, can prove to be just as necessary. Art is one of the vitamins in our lives. To that end, we three conveners have hoped that this evening will bring together writers of all sorts, writers of poetry and prose, and of all levels of achievement, pros and amateurs, in a sharing of insights and outlooks. And with a success this evening, we hope that HUCTW Writes! will become more likely and not a bit less natural. Jim Henle NOTE: Credit where credit is due: I stole the idea of art as vitamins from the Russian formalist critic Victor Shklovsky's wonderful little prose piece called "Bundle" that can be found in the collection, The Serapion Brothers, published by Ardis Press.

Short Story Feature Jennie Rathbun