Reveal of Personal Works at PSU Professors’ Exclusive Lamson Library Reading
Dylan Tulk
He/Him
Staff Writer
10/5/24
What do cookies, roadkill, and compost all have in common? Students at Professors Liz Ahl and Kenneth Logan’s reading discovered the answer to this question. As the moon rose, and the autumnal night darkened outside, listeners gathered close for a sharing of exclusive and revealing pieces by much-loved English faculty.
On September 19th, from 7 to 8pm, Ahl and Logan presented an array of published and in-process works at Lamson Library’s Commons Cafe, which welcomed an enraptured audience of students, professors and friends.
Ahl, Professor of English and Creative Writing, and coordinator of PSU’s Eagle Pond Authors’ Series, is an esteemed poet and teacher. Her most recent collection was A Case for Solace (Lily Poetry Review Books, 2022), and she has another manuscript in the wings.
Ahl read from an extensive collection of published pieces, including “Hating Acorns” and “The Great Attractor.” She invited the audience into her artistic process through a debut of recently written poems. Ahl read “The Story” and “Daughters,” both inspired by Ahl’s experience with her mom “through some challenging medical/aging experiences.” She also read “What Is It About Submarine Movies,” a fantastic ode to subaquatic adventures.
Logan, Assistant Professor of Practice and English Education Coordinator, is the author of “True Letters from a Fictional Life” (HarperCollins, 2016), a young adult novel. He read a new excerpt from his in-progress novel, which is set on a school trip in the Pine Ridge Reservation, “about a kid who claims he can see the future.” Logan also read from his story “Saxophones and Lawnmowers,” a heart-wrenching narrative centered around two young boys, told with crafty transitions and diverse character perspectives.
The audience was small, but their careful listening and vocal reactions to the words being shared made up for their size. The stray pet cat turned roadkill in Logan’s “Saxophones and Lawnmowers” brought tears to everyone’s eyes, and all laughed during “Red-Spotted Newt” as Ahl described her empathic anger at emptying the compost before she met the sweet, spotted creature.
Lamson Library’s Commons Cafe regularly hosts intriguing literary events. These events are free, once-in-a-lifetime experiences. Next time you see a reading go up, put it in your calendar—I promise it’ll be worth going.