I went to the readings at 356 with Leigh Anne Couch and Oindrila Mukherjee. Leigh Anne Couch, a graduate of UNCG, read five poems, three of which were selected from her new works. My personal favorite of her poems was "Learning to Use the Stick," which is written in an optimistic tone, encouraging the blind boy to "learn how to be blind." She says, "you're not alone" and "there's no use looking down," as words of encouragement, suggesting that the boy "open his eyes" to the world of the blind and learn how to make the best of it.
Following Leigh Anne Couch, Oindrila Mukherjee read the prologue of her newest novel, The House of Rain. Mukherjee, originally from India, read to us about her experience of travelling to England to attend Cambridge University. She used very intricate details to describe the sounds and colors throughout her encounters at the airport, on the plane, and after arriving in England. She expresses disappointment when describing her first moments in England because she had fantasized about it for so long and imagined it as the land of opportunity. Unfortunately, she arrived in England feeling alone and completely the same as before she had arrived, without new inspiration or feelings of a new life.
The readings at 356 were very interesting. I've never been to a reading before, and it was definitely a different experience to hear the readings by the author herself rather than reading the readings on my own.
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