The Hubbard Hall Writers Project met tonight to rehearse for our reading tomorrow. We sat in a still, barely lit room listening to each other read. We each spoke too fast or mumbled a bit or looked down at our papers too much as we worked out our nerves and prepared to share a taste of what we had been writing this past year. Some of us were more nervous than others; some are more used to the spotlight, but we shared “a creative spark” for which the reading is entitled, and a desire to give it voice. I was struck by the diversity of the pieces and how differently they sounded when read aloud by their authors, than the blog posts we are used to seeing online. Themes ranged from a love story to memories of the year Kennedy was shot to the state of healthcare, today. The voices were distinct, the writing sound. We have much of which to be proud.