Dr. Sainsbury was the second to present in Tributaries' Faculty lecture series on Tuesday, October 20, 2009. She read from her recently finalized memoir, Lost River, which is about her father's tragic suicide. The reading was well attended, moving, heartfelt, engaging, and exactly what the writing community ordered. Click the title to find out more!
As Dr. Sainsbury herself said, "I may be on the more conservative end of things, but I do not believe in making things up." In keeping with that thought, Dr. Sainsbury gave us the unabashed truth of her feelings on Tuesday night. Her memoir, Lost River, is not your typical memoir. There is no clunky paragraph work, no long blocks of text to knock you unconscious, nor self-absorbed whining to be found in her book. At once lyrical and brutally, plainly honest, Lost River grabbed the hearts and minds of everyone in Hansen Student Center and did not let go. Her "mosaic" style is a deliberate choice, manifesting both visually and linguistically, which was made out of necessity of expression, and each passage from that "mosaic" styled work brings its own sentimentality to life. If only we had a copy to post (or SELL!) we at Tribs would promote it shamelessly. Everywhere.
Not only was the text itself stunning, but Dr. Sainsbury has great performance abilities! Her emotional reading of the text had all the subtleties and nuance of a professional actor reading a dramatic monologue... or an honest human who can convey their emotions beautifully. The reading resonated in the audience in a powerful way, if the intelligence, depth, and breadth of the question-and-answer session to follow was any indication. The questions spanned from the notions of truth/accuracy in the memoir genre, to the catharsis of writing and obligations to those which stories concern. Dr. Sainsbury answered each question tirelessly (and there were A LOT of questions) and provided us with exactly the kind of student-faculty interactions that Tribs was looking for.
When Tributaries envisioned the faculty presentation dynamic and the benefits it could have for everyone involved, these last two presentations were exactly what we had in mind. We could not be more grateful to everyone who made this and last month's lecture such a success.
So, thank you, firstly, to Dr. Sainsbury for sharing herself and her work so honestly and openly. Second, thanks to all who made this event happen (i.e. Tribs Exec board, IWU English Deptartment, Hansen crew, Kevin Clark). Third, thank you to the IWU writing community LG-PR-T (Lyrical Graffiti, Pseudonym Required, Tributaries) for bringing people to the event. And finally, thank you to all who came to the event, listened carefully, and asked great questions. Undying appreciation is what the Tribs Editors are feeling today.
The photos are up on our Facebook Account!
-Eds