What happened at Dire Reader?
Dire Reader is an open mic for writers in Cambridge, MA. I discovered it online while living in Truro. Dire Reader gives writers a full 15 minutes to read and that is about what I needed to read Nascent Constellation, the middle story in the trilogy. I worked on the story all through December - there's a bit about Christmas in the story - and was finishing the first draft around New Year's Day. Dire Reader was held once a month and I decided I wanted to try out reading the story there in January. The event was less than a week away, January 6th.
Something else happened between that decision and the event: I learned that a friend, someone I based one of the characters in the story on, had passed away. I had wanted to send him a copy of the story.
I drove through a sleet and snow storm from Truro to Cambridge. In that weather it took over 3 hours. Even so, I arrived an hour early and was the last to sign up for the open mic. The room filled up. The featured writer at this event reads after the open mic. That night the featured writer was Sue Miller.
I read, nervous, stuttery, and teary. These stories are personal. I write them as fiction, but they are based on people I knew. Sue Miller read and spoke about the memoir she wrote about her father.
When the readings were over, I was still nervous and maybe a bit embarrassed about the reading and about the writing that was still in draft stage. A crowd formed around Sue Miller. I got my coat on and made a dash for the door. Sue Miller pulled herself out from the crowd around her and came over to me, grabbing my arm just before I got to the door, to tell me she enjoyed the reading, saying the story was "so funny and personal."
Sue Miller is probably the most famous person to have commented on my work. The incident is certainly worthy of reporting here. Our writing, though different, has something in common and that, I think, is honesty.
Sue Miller is the author of The Good Mother, Family Pictures, The Distinguished Guest, While I Was Gone, Lost in the Forest, For Love, I'm Tougher Than I Look, the short story collection, Inventing the Abbots, and was the editor, in 2002, of The Best American Short Stories. Her first book, The Good Mother, was the basis of a film directed by Leonard Nimoy in 1988. While I Was Gone was on Oprah's Book Club.
Thanks for reading.
Peter Demers
Dire Reader