Crush
Monday 17 October
The Castle Hotel
See some photos from this event
An evening of fanfiction, impressions, musical tributes, and more…
The prompt for this event was been set by wonderful fiction writer (and author of ‘Call It Dog’) Marli Roode. Read it below…
The Prompt
So you say you want a deathbed scene, the knowledge that comes
before knowledge,
and you want it dirty.
And no one can ever figure out what you want,
and you won’t tell them,
and you realize the one person in the world who loves you
isn’t the one you thought it would be,
and you don’t trust him to love you in a way
you would enjoy.
And the boy who loves you the wrong way is filthy.
And the boy who loves you the wrong way keeps weakening.
You thought if you handed over your body
he’d do something interesting.
From A Primer for the Small Weird Loves, by Richard Siken
Or, as Jennifer Paige put it…
It’s just a little crush/
not like I faint every time we touch
In Richard Siken’s poetry, the body is tyrant. To be touched is at once to be reached, connected to, found, and to be controlled, disappointed, made aware of the ways in which you’re like everybody else and the ways in which you’re alone. Love – or obsession – is inevitable; loss, impending; punishment, deserved. Put in less stark terms, a crush is sweet, erotic and life-threatening all at once. It’s mentionitis, trying to avoid cliche (because sex and love seem to invite them, cliches), boring your friends anyway.
So at the next First Draft, I want to ask writers, musicians, comedians and other performers of all kinds to come share what it’s like to have a crush, to be crushed upon, to be, to quote Cher Horowitz, totally bugging. We promise you won’t bore us.
Line up of performers
Marli Roode – fiction
Laetitia Adkins – comedy
Holly Aszkenasy – fiction
Nyela Asad & Ben Rout – musical comedy
Lenni Sanders – poetry
Adam Farrer – creative non-fiction
****
Cafe Misfits – music
Luke Helly – comedy
Joe Daly – fiction
Thom Bee – comedy
Danielle Peet – creative non-fiction
Jenny May Morgan – drama/comedy
First Draft 