The history and legacy of Cache Valley’s open mic creative writing event, Helicon West
Editors: note: In a previous edition, published March 29 at 10:05 a.m., the article stated Helicon West was held in the the Logan Library room 255. It is held in the Jim Bridger Room. That location has been corrected below.
Posters for an event called “Helicon West” are plastered all around campus, specifically in the Ray B. West building.
The name suggests the idea of a hike up in Logan Canyon. Maybe even a club? But unless a closer look is taken at these posters, the idea behind the event might just seem like a mystery.
Helicon West is public reading forum featuring different types of creative writing, such as poetry and short stories. The event is held every second and fourth Thursday of the month at 7 p.m.. It is held in the Jim Bridger Room at the Logan Library on Main Street.
The inaugural Helicon West event took place fall, 2005. Michael Sowder is one of the co-founders.
“It’s a bi-weekly community reading venue for creative writing,” Sowder said. “The first half of the event is for scheduled readings and the other half is an open mic. The cool thing about it is that it draws on the creativity of the community and the university.”
Sowder is also a professor in the English department at Utah State University. He teaches classes on the topic of poetry and other creative writing. He even requires some of his advanced students to participate in Helicon West.
“Most of my advanced and graduate students are studying to be professional writers,” Sowder said. “Part of the life of being a writer is getting used to reading your work to an audience.”
USU’S SARAH THOMAS, winner of the Poetry, Fiction and Creative Non-Fiction sections of the 2013 USU Creative Writing Contest, reads her pieces “Returning” and “Beyond Logic” at the Helicon West public reading Thursday at the Logan Public Library. JESSICA FIFE photo
Sowder said the name comes from Greek mythology.
“Mount Helicon is the mountain home of the muses in Greek mythology,” he said. “We added the ‘west’ part on the end to make it our own, since Utah lies on the west part of the country.”
Another key player in the creation of Helicon West is Star Coulbrooke.
“Michael Sowder and I wanted to create an open mic reading series with occasional featured authors,” Coulbrooke said. “He thought of the name — after the ancient Greek mountain range where the nine muses lived — and I’ve been coordinating the events for twelve years.”
When Coulbrooke isn’t at Helicon West events, she serves as the director of the USU Writing Center and the Logan City Poet Laureate. Many pieces of her work have been published.
“(My favorite part) is the variety of voices and genres and personalities, all the wonderful diversity and talent that appears, the surprises, the people who join us and stick around to participate in a literary event where everyone is welcome, no matter their level of skill or interest,” she said.
Helicon West is something even the library staff looks forward to. Joseph Anderson has had the duty of overseeing the event at Logan Library.
Darren Edwards, a poet featured in this years Helicon West Anthology, reads his poem titled “Privilege” at the groups opening meeting.
“The library employees that are involved with it, myself and Katrina Farrow definitely do look forward to it,” Anderson said. “I am so glad that we were able to accommodate Helicon West here and create a regular place for them. The library’s promotion of community, creativity, literature, and free expression aligns perfectly with Helicon West.”
Anderson himself has even participated in some readings.
“I have (participated) four times, I believe,” Anderson said. “I’m always nervous but afterwards I’m always glad that I shared. My three teen daughters have also read at Helicon West.”
Helicon West takes place in town, rather than on-campus, is to purposely draw students to become apart of the community.
“The majority of Helicon West attendees are USU students or faculty. But that’s okay with all of us because it brings them off campus and into the wider community. Star decided early that she wanted Helicon West to take place in downtown Logan even though it would rely heavily on the campus population and I think that instinct was right. It is one way we close the gap between ‘town & gown.’”
Helicon West is open to all who are willing to share their creative writing, student or non-student. The only rule is participants limit their time to a maximum of seven minutes.
@hannahjoyce