Essays Again Main Feature of Writers Guild First Sunday Prose

Essayists again predominated, at least among the featured readers at this afternoon’s Bloomington Writers Guild “First Sunday Prose Reading and Open Mic” (see February 2, et al.) at Bear’s Place.  First up was Zilia Balkansky-Sellés with two pieces, the first with a folkloristic bent on “The Problem With Joseph Campbell and the Hero’s Journey reframed as STAR WARS” and the second a personal memory of “The Terrible Shining Day” of her mother’s death, and was followed by Writers Guild Chair Joan Hawkins with “God and Joe DiMaggio,” a “creative memoir” of the death of Marilyn Monroe as seen through the eyes of a nine-year-old girl and (accompanying her mother) habitué of Ruby’s, a working-class San Francisco beauty salon.  This was followed by four — or actually five, the last an a cappella performance of two songs — open mike readers, of which I was second with a reprise of the recently re-published (cf. February 25, et al.) “A Cup Full of Tears,” a Valentine’s Day and/or Mardi Gras celebration of lesbian vampirism and love.