Rose Chiango
Staff Writer

On Friday, November 2, the Ware Center hosted the third annual “Poetry Aloud” event. It featured readings from Millersville students and Poet Laureate Chris Longenecker.
The Creative Writers’ Guild is an organization where writing flourishes.
An unofficial motto, “Live by the Pen, Die by the Pen” sums up the passion these writers have for their craft and sharing it with others.

Chris Longenecker, Poet Laureate of Lancaster County.

The Creative Writers’ Guild at Millersville University is a fairly new organization that developed around the same time the new George Street Carnival, the University’s literary-art magazine, was brought back to life, after being extinct since 2007.
CWG hosted the event, a semi-annual poetry reading at the Ware Center, that in the past has been co-hosted with Franklin and Marshall’s Writer’s House.
It is a semi-formal event where people sign up to read beforehand, get in front of an audience and read their work.
You do not have to memorize what you have written, and the audience is fairly flexible and forgiving.
Tyler Barton, the President of the Guild, opened the evening with words of welcome and introduced Chris Longenecker, the Poet Laureate of Lancaster County, who read one of her works.
Many Millersville students read during the evening. Especially notable were Caitlin Breneman and Kelly Brown, for their dramatic and crisp performances.
Samantha Sweigart, also, was especially good at giving her poetry a preamble before reading it to help the listener understand context.
The room it was held in overlooking Prince Street gave the evening pleasant ambience; the audience was seated around circular tables.
Light refreshments were provided. Most of the people there were students from Millersville, and several professors from Millersville were also in attendance.
Anyone from the community was invited to attend, and one teacher, Carol Allen-Gordon, came with her student, Jake Robinson, who shared his creatively written rap piece. He had attended the previous Poetry Aloud event last spring and was excited to return.
The Creative Writers’ Guild meets at 9:00 p.m. in Chryst 210 on Tuesday. There is an emphasis on sharing writing with the group, but observers are always welcome. We plan writing activities, special events, and poetry readings.
Coming up, Ty Clever of Millersville’s Art Department will be holding a writing workshop at 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, November 13 in Chryst 210 where the weekly meetings are held.
Members from the Guild will also be attending Barbara Strasko’s book release at the Ware Center, at 7:30 p.m. on November 8, to support local poets.
Another Poetry Aloud event will be held in the spring.
If you want more information about Creative Writers’ Guild, contact Tyler Barton at tylerstevenbarton@gmail.com or look up the Facebook page, “Creative Writer’s Guild!”.