PVCC Students Read at Reception for School’s Literary Publication

Writers can find inspiration everywhere. In fond memories, patterns of nature, compelling works of art, or the deep chasms within themselves, they find the words to propel their voices forward. Students and faculty had the pleasure of hearing these voices during the reception for the student literary magazine The Fall Line on Sept. 23. 

After perusing the faculty art and chatting about what it may mean or how they found the time to make it, attendees gathered into the main hall to listen to contributors to The Fall Line read their work aloud. Throughout the year students worked hard on its release and there were many thanks given to its contributors and staff. 

Many different students read, with a myriad of styles. Some were simple. Some rhythmic, some prose, some metered poetry, and everything in between. Among these readers was Seb Harper, whose work “A Body Unfurled” is formatted in a way that lends itself to silent reading, though he read aloud with intense emotion and vivid energy. Dark, eldritch imagery is translated from layered, repeating text into rising and falling tone and bouncing meter. According to Harper, this work was inspired by the video game Cultist Simulator, particularly the tone of existential dread. 

The Fall Line was established in 2008 by PVCC’s creative writing club. According to Professor of English Jennifer Koster, the name was proposed by Brandon Willitts. A geographic term, it refers to “the imaginary lines where different elevation regions, such as the piedmont and coastal plain, meet.” The magazine was and always has been a showcase of the diverse voices of the diverse student body, a meeting place for different voices from the same place, just as a geographic fall line marks a new form of the same ground.

Submissions for the next issue of The Fall Line are open from November into January.