Literature plus beautiful weather creates the perfect ambience today at 7 p.m. for the Delta Journal’s Highland Coffees Reading Series in the coffee shop’s courtyard.
The Delta Journal literary magazine publishes University undergraduates’ writing and artwork every spring. Delta Journal’s Highland Coffees Reading Series on the first and third Thursday every month started last February thanks to Anna Hurst and Sam Oliver, former Delta Journal editors.
Oliver, Latin and history senior, said he and Hurst, English senior, wanted more programs and activities associated with Delta Journal.
“Since the journal prints once a year, building a community among creative students presented a challenge,” Oliver said.
Oliver and Hurst conceived the idea of the reading series with Clarke Cadzow, Highland Coffees owner. The series has since drawn large audiences and delivers quality work, Oliver said.
“People read and exchange ideas in coffee shops everyday, so a quality reading series naturally fits the atmosphere,” Cadzow said.
Tommy Jacobi, English senior, and Blake Stephens, English and French senior, are current editors of the Delta Journal.
“The Highland Series prides itself on presenting only the most unique and cutting-edge writing,” Jacobi said. “We have readers from all over the map, and even though we hand-pick them, we can never quite predict what’s going to happen.”
Jacobi said the series collaborated with River Writers, a
bimonthly master of fine arts reading at Boudreaux and Thibodeaux’s, and together booked four exceptional writers for today’s reading.
Jacobi said Alison Pelegrin, author of “Big Muddy River of Stars” and “The Zydeco Tablets” and winner of the Akron Poetry Prize, will read. Vincent Cellucci, author of “An Easy Place to Die,” and University undergraduates Lindsey Hopton and Michael Glaviano will also read.
Following the reading, listeners can share writings at the Open Mic Guerrilla reading at the Greek Amphitheatre. Jacobi said anyone can read without being critically judged, and it is a great way for writers to showcase their work.
The Delta Journal accepts submissions from the University community and chooses works from various media, including poetry and fiction, Oliver said.
“If you think poetry is boring and stupid, come to a Highland Reading and get proven wrong,” Jacobi said. “Writers from all over the country have been blown away by the scene we have here at LSU.”
 
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Contact Jeanne Lyons at [email protected]