Literary magazine expanded> Husson publicaton unearths creativity

How cruel can a mother be by killing her own creations?

She binds her tall soldiers in freezing crystal, beautiful but deadly,

Life-giving water against the cold encases them in a death shroud.

Sparkling like a diamond in the sunshine, but she isn’t a jewel at all.

Robin Roberts said she was inspired to write this poem when she “rounded the circle at Husson College after the ice storm, and saw the tree damage. … This was my first creative thought in my life, and they haven’t stopped since.”

Roberts’ work has been included in the sixth volume of “Crosscut,” the college’s literary magazine. With Husson celebrating its centennial this year, editors Tom Batt and Robert Nichols decided to expand this issue and include work not just from students and faculty, but from alumni, family and friends as well.

“This magazine started six years ago as a Xeroxed publication of student and faculty work,” said Batt, after a publication party last week at Borders Books, Music and Cafe in Bangor. “We wanted to do something really special for the 100th. This is the first year we’ve brought in family, friends and supporters. It really is a crosscut or cross section of the Husson community.”

The result includes 47 pieces of poetry, prose, photography and artwork that reveal “there is a vital stream of creativity running beneath the surface of our college, and it deserves this opportunity and many others to emerge,” said Batt, who teaches English at Husson.

Although nearly two-thirds of the work is that of students, President William Beardsley, his executive administrative assistant Lillian Begin, retired English teacher Al Weymouth and 10-year-old Amanda Foye contributed as well.

Jeremy Brown’s story, “The One That Got Away,” tells of his experience deer hunting with his father when he was 13 years old. The author came face to face with a 12-point, 350-pound buck and experienced his first taste of failure.

“Every muscle in his body rippled as he gracefully walked along the ridge. His keen ears twitched, trying to pick up any hint of a noise. He walked with confidence as if he were king of the forest.”

Brown, a freshman at the New England School of Communication, said, “A teacher gave me the kick in the pants I needed to write down the experience. I’m glad I did. I’ve decided I want to be a novelist, maybe even start my own literary magazine some day. But I want to keep writing.”

Not all of the work published is original. Boubacar Thiam, a freshman from Senegal, chose to translate a work by his favorite poet from French into English. “Fantasisie,” by Gerard de Nerval, who died in 1855, is published in both French and English.

“I like that [Nerval] is a realist and the way he expresses himself,” said Thiam. “I was asked to contribute to `Crosscut’, and I picked Nerval because he inspires me.”

Beardsley went back to his own college days in “On the Road to Entebbe.” He and his fellow students decided to attend a revival for “something to do” on a dull weekend in Uganda.

“The Kikuyu sang in Swahili as we climbed the red-dust path to the plantation. Strange and lyrical melodies, then one I knew by heart: `In the Garden.’ I had learned it from my grandmother. Robert too. Solomon too. No one knew us, so Robert and I sang, and the cluster of families we walked with began to hum and sway. …”

Artist Siri Beckman donated the woodcut print titled “Inside/Outside” that is on the “Crosscut” cover. On a table in front of a window rests a book and a pair of binoculars. Outside the window, pine trees appear to shiver in the breeze as clouds roll across the sky and a three-masted schooner sails by. It is an irresistible invitation to open the publication and read.

“This is a very good literary compilation, indeed,” wrote Stephen King in his introduction. “The work is uneven and much of it is flawed, but there is also unexpected beauty and toughness of expression — a clear thread of plain unvarnished Yankee diction.”

King speculated that his own literary career began when a fellow college student told him that he liked King’s story “Cain Rose Up,” which had been published in the University of Maine’s literary magazine, Ubris.

Probably none of the people whose work is featured in Husson’s literary magazine can relate to King’s phenomenal success. However, the writers and artists who contributed to Crosscut now understand exactly how King felt when he first heard the words, “Liked your story, man.”