Fiction, Memoirs, More Mermaids Mark May First Sunday Prose

A stormy morning and gloomy, if pleasantly warm afternoon may have kept the crowds down for this month’s “Bloomington Writers Guild’s First Sunday Prose” (cf. April 2, March 5, et al.) in the back conference area at Morgenstern Books. But, even if mostly confined to nine or ten listeners in all, the quality of the work read was high.

First up was a Bloomington fixture of sorts, retired Unitarian Universalist minister and peace (and other causes) activist Bill Breeden with two essays from his ongoing memoir, BILLY PILGRIM AND THE BLACK FEMALE JESUS, on a visit by Batman to Owen County and, at age 13, learning the true meaning of pacifism. He was followed by fiction, memoir, and history author Wendy Teller, currently working on the third of a novel trilogy set in Hungary, reading her earlier Richard Eastman Prose Award winning short story, “Dusting the Towels,” along with an excerpt (also touching in part on pacifism) from her coming-of-age novel BECOMING MIA.

Following a short break, a majority of the rest of us — five in all — filled the “open mic” session, of which I was fourth, reading the final of my own short story trilogy, “Mermaid Vampiress Unlucky In Love,” followed by essayist/MC Joan Hawkins to close the session for spring. Then, after a three-month summer hiatus, the next “First Sunday Prose” will be in August.