Nicole Terez Dutton shares poetry for SU writing students

By Ofentse Mokoka asst. copy editor

Abbey Fitzpatrick only attended Nicole Terez Dutton’s book reading Wednesday for her ENG 107 class, but having left with meaningful insight and the opportunity to hear an author read their own work, Fitzpatrick said this won’t be her last time going to the series.

“It’s an opportunity you don’t get all the time to read a book and then meet the author. All of them have been so kind and welcoming,” said Fitzpatrick, a freshman at Syracuse University. “I’m not even an English major, I’m a political science and CCE major, but I just really enjoy this stuff.”

The book reading is a part of the Raymond Carver Reading Series, which brings in the authors of six readings for question-and-answer events. The series is hosted and overseen by faculty within the creative writing program and is put on by the English Department. This week the series brought in Dutton, the author of “If One of Us Should Fall.”

Dutton’s book is a collection of poems that follows a traveling musician who details her trip and the various experiences, conversations and observations that add to her experience on the road. Before Dutton read various poems from her book, students could ask questions about Dutton and her book based on their interpretation and understanding of her writing.

Fitzpatrick said she really enjoyed Dutton’s thoughtful answers and welcoming demeanor. The question-andanswer session and reading allowed her to rethink Dutton’s work and look back at some of the discussions they had in class.

Following the Q&A session, Dutton took to the podium to read some of her poems and speak about some of the stories behind the pieces. She spoke about how many people falsely assume all of her pieces are based solely on personal experience. Her brief anecdotes ranged from first-person