Columbus Literary Awards Ceremony, James Thurber House

The Thurber House, where the awards ceremony will take place.

Guess this is the right place!

I peeked inside the room to snap a shot of the podium/seats.

Since we were early, I poked around outside a bit. Found a walkway around to the side of the building, along with some enclosed benches.

What a cute little fountain!

The spread upstairs, where folks were starting to gather/mingle.

Matt and his dad, chatting.

The room fills up. I just stuck my arm in the air, and took a photo. I ended up seeing a lot of my MFA friends. Mark made the trek from Florida (he and Juliet and I were all in the same MFA class together), and good God – I don’t think I’d seen him since we graduated. I also got to see Kristina (Nonfiction, year ahead) and Jacki (Fiction, year behind) along wiht a ton of other C-town folks.

Matt, Juliet, Lee, waiting for the awards ceremony to begin.

Lee, reading from his essay.

Juliet, taking the podium.

Matt, closing the evening with his set.

It was awesome to see/hear my friends read again. We all used to give readings regularly, back when we were in school together. It’s great to see them in front of a crowd, to hear them reading their words out loud again. The Columbus Literary Awards come with a $5,000 stipend – and hearing these guys tonight, it’s no wonder why they won.