On Saturday, March 7, 2009, Skyline College hosted the seventh annual Women on Writing conference. The conference started at 8a.m. and ended at 4p.m. Afterwards a reception was held in building 6. Lunch was also included in the registration fee of $25 and took place in the cafeteria, but that didn’t stop audiences from taking their bagged lunches to the open readings.

Morning workshops included various themes, as did afternoon workshops. These workshops were hosted by a variety of writers and authors, some of who are widely known in the literary world. Featured writers and novelists included: Julia Whitty, who was a primary speaker at the event, Nona Caspers, who won the Grace Paley Prize in short fiction category, along with many other awards, Micheline Aharonian Marcom, who wrote four books, and Yiyun Li’s “A Thousand Years of Good Prayers” won the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Festival.

Book signing and a book talk took place in the main theatre, giving audience members a chance to speak with authors as well as to ask them questions after the book talk.

But honorary authors were not the only ones with the privilege to read their works. During lunch open readings, which took place upstairs in building 6, participants were invited to bring their own work to read aloud. Alyssa O’Brien, who teaches English at Stanford University, hosted this event. O’Brien says the event was “fabulous” and that she was “very happy” about the audience turnout. The rule of open reading is simple; the time limit is three minutes.

A variety of writers, totaling about 24 in all, signed up to read their works behind a podium and microphone. In the audience the shuffling of paper brown lunch bags could be heard along with the cracking of soda cans. A variety of works were orated to include personal memoirs, poems, journal entrees, excerpts from short stories and novels, and a class exercise. “I got absorbed in the moment” says Brenda Nicolas, one of the volunteers who read her piece aloud. For many, this was a chance to be heard or acknowledged as a writer, regardless of one’s talents in the arts.

In the same room, at 2:30, the poetry slam got underway. The “Slam of Love” as the vivacious host Meliza Benales called it, differs slightly from the open reading. Slam rules include: no props, no costumes, no musical instruments or CDs, no reading or performing longer than three minutes and ten seconds. Scores were decided by the judges, one of whom, Elaine Low, says, “I based by judging on the three S’s: spontaneous, sound, and substance.” Other judges followed a similar routine. The static vibe of the poetry slam made audience and performers float on the same page of integrity; competition was the least important factor. First prize winner in the poetry slam, Carla Castillo, who spoke with overwhelming enthusiasm, mentions “I got 4th place last year, and I did not expect to get first prize this time”, and “I write poetry for fun”. Just like Benales said, “poetry slam is about having fun”.