 "Photo: Courtesy Alexa Garvoille")
It takes guts to write the truth, to get it out and put it down on paper. Especially when you're a high school freshman writing about yourself. "Other People + Me," a new collection of memoirs by students from Durham School of the Arts, is all about guts. Twelve students, members of the DSA Publishing Club, performed selections from the collection Wed, Sept. 28 at The Regulator Bookshop in Durham.
"There's a lot of feeling in this book. How many of us cried reading it and writing it? It's much more than paper. It's the heart, and the soul, and the mind," said a DSA student who wrote her memoir, "The World's Standstill," using the pen name Rixumbein.
Alexa Garvoille, a DSA English teacher, created DSA Publishing Club to offer students writing, editing and publishing experience. Freshman students write and edit the memoirs. The club meets twice a week after school.
"What is it in your life that makes you unique?" Garvoille asks students as they begin crafting memoirs. Student editors work together to prepare the memoirs for publication. The process is arduous, and involves multiple edits and revisions.
"It's really a beautiful thing, writing, whether writing for somebody else or writing for yourself, because you can let out emotion that otherwise you wouldn't be able to let out," said student Obadiah Kimmel, who wrote "Pain in Six Glorious Moments."
"Other People + Me" is a diverse collection which probes the human condition. From the comedic voice of "Adventures in the Friggin' U.K." by Gwen Williams, to the verbal tapestry of "Curtain Call" by Natalie Doan-Dunnum, the narratives reveal the complexity of adolescence.
Students didn't hold back their while reading their work to an audience for the first time. They discussed the difficulty in writing honest work, regardless of the possibility of peer rebuke.
"It was the fear of what would be read, not knowing if people would look at me differently and not really wanting to put something personal in the book," said a student who wrote "Sonata Con Fuoco" using the pen name Emma Grace.
"Other People + Me" is the second collection of memoirs in the "Memoirs of Freshman" series published by the club.
The first, " Going on 15," was published in 2010. "Other People + Me" is available at The Regulator Bookshop. Both collections are available in digital and hard copy at lulu.com.
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