Joseph Roberts steps ups on stage to unveil his short romance story, “Hangnail.” | Amanda Scott/The Daily Cougar
The editors and writers of Glass Mountain, an undergraduate literary journal at the University of Houston, hosted a public reading at Café Brasil Tuesday evening that included presentations from two students and a performance by musical guest Thanushka Lewkebandara Quartet.
Glass Mountain is a nonprofit, nationally distributed student publication that offers inexperienced undergraduates a platform to showcase their creative writing. The readings can be fiction or non-fiction; it is up to the audience to decipher.
The atmosphere was cool and relaxing. Candles sat lit on the tables and the hustle and bustle of forks sliding across the plates began to die down as the night’s chosen readers were introduced.
Senior Katherine Robb and sophomore Joseph Roberts were two students who read their works.
A month prior, Robb and Roberts met with Jameelah Lang, a doctoral candidate in the UH Creative Writing Program, to revise their stories before reading them aloud to the public.
Roberts began the event by narrating a short story he wrote last summer. Filled with finely detailed what-if situations, “Hangnail” truly showcased the unknown projections of a first-date experience.
Katherine, self-described as an evil demon in her family, takes a humorous approach to a bad French date as she tells the story of a man who left her completely uninspired in the romantic language.
Funny and dark in her own way, she later goes on to tell of Aunt Rosie’s tumor, an unfortunate yet funny spin on a family situation.
Because of other’s refusal to take responsibility, she takes the audience through the turmoil of dealing with the mental deterioration of an unwanted family member.
A short intermission was provided by the Thanushka Lewkebandara Quartet, a group of UH music students that provided well-composed and intelligent music to match the night.
Lang read three emotional shorts. Her readings had the intensity, depth and clarity of a black-and-white photo.
It was an account retold and reedited with help from her mother of a his-or-her relationship perspective and how the viewpoints greatly differed.
Her other stories centered on family experiences, like her sister who left to better herself in a new place and her father, a great mathematician, struggling against the odds after a serious health problem.
For more information on Glass Mountain, visit glassmountainmag.com.
