Student organization hosts writing competition

Students mentioned subjects such as beanie babies and nude models in original poems and short stories in a competition Monday night.

The Literary Death Match used a popular promotional tool by having the audience decide which writers would move on for a chance to participate in a final match.

Seniors Elysia Smith and Tyler Fields hosted the two heats and the final death match Monday.

For each heat, the audience voted for two of the readers to progress and the judges picked three to move forward.

Senior Austin Hayden won first place with his short story.

Earlier this month, 20 writers read original short stories or poems at Be Here Now and Village Green Records and the 10 that were voted forward presented at Bracken Library. 

This method is different from how the event usually has been run, where three readers are selected at one time from a group of 30 readers.

Junior Brandon Beeson said he is friends with some of the writers and attended all of the heats. He said he enjoyed the group atmosphere present at the events.

“I feel that something that the arts lack, and Ball State in a way, is community in a sense,” Beeson said. “I feel like a lot of writers are just being writers and doing things with other writers. What I would like to see at Ball State is all of us just getting together and participating in the arts.”

Hayden discussed the preparation he did and how he used his friends to help him decide on which of his short stories to read.

“I read a lot of short stories and I had to pick one, and I read it a bunch to myself,” he said. “And I sent it to my friends and had them send it back with ideas.”

More than 50 people attended each event for Literary Death Match, which the Writer’s Community organizes. Smith said she still has hopes for a bigger group in the future. 

“If I could change it, I would do a longer series of heats and try and market it out wider because our net was cast a little shallow this year,” Smith said.