UESA to host spooky story contest Monday night
On Oct. 29, a dark and gloomy night, the Undergraduate English Student Association (UESA) returned with their Halloween edition of blUe mOnday.
Starting at 8 p.m. on Monday, students were welcomed to take a break from studying for midterms, and get into the Halloween spirit with UESA’s third-annual spooky story contest at Café Nostalgica.
According to fourth-year English and communications student, and the outgoing vice president of UESA, Ariana Morel, “the spooky story contest is just a special version of our monthly blUe mOndays—a poetry and music show we put on the third Monday of every month at Café Nostalgica.”
This particular blUe mOnday gave all participating students the chance to write a scary story, whether it was a short story, poem, or song, and presented it to an audience for a chance to win a surprise prize.
“We encourage anyone and everyone to attend and participate,” explained Morel. “The winner (was) chosen by a panel of judges made up of randomly selected audience members who (were) not reading a piece of their own.”
This year’s winner was Evan Chan, a second-year engineering student at the U of O.
For students who were not interested in writing a story, but still wanted to attend the event, they could go listen to their fellow students, be judges, or jam along to the night’s featured musician.
The UESA also offered students who like to engage their creative writing skills, but were not interested in speaking before the crowd, the ability to have someone else read their work instead.
After all the performers read their stories, and while the judges were deliberating, audiences listened to featured musician Tiffany Schilkie, who organizers described “as the little girl with the big voice,” on their event page.
“It’s unique because it really offers students a chance to be creative during midterms,” Morel told the Fulcrum. “It also helps that our event hosts a stress-free environment where people can express themselves and even get over … fears of standing in front of crowds,” which Morel admitted to have helped her.
“It really is a fun event where people can let loose,” said Morel. “In fact, last year a student presented a spooky story of two words—student loans—(which) sent chills down everyone’s spines.”
To find out more about the event, UESA, email Ariana Morel at [email protected].
