Alumnus reads book scenes

By Katie Gil
STAFF WRITER

The Writers Forum finally had its first writer visit for the 2008 spring semester Wednesday, March 26, and the event went off without a hitch.

Derek Nikitas, a former College at Brockport student, read excerpts from his first book, Pyres, along with an amusing passage from Barry Hannah’s Pete Resists the Man of His Own Room.

In terms of genre, Pyres could be considered a merging of “Law & Order: SVU,” Ordinary People by Judith Guest, “Cops,” Pan’s Labyrinth and a plethora of fables and fairy tales that end with Cinderella getting her throat slit. In short, it’s fantastic in every sense of the word, while being grounded in our tangible reality of the Rochester area — no doubt an interesting read.

Nikitas sets the scene succinctly with the opening line of the book, “Once upon a time is hell.”

He has an impressive résumé: He received his undergraduate degree in English from Brockport, his Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of North Carolina-Wilmington and is working on his Ph.D. in creative writing at Georgia State University.

His works have been published in Ontario Review, Chelsea, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, The Pedestal Magazine and St. Martin’s short story anthology, Killer Year: Stories to Die For.

Moreover, his story “Wonder” received an honorable mention from the Pushcart Prize, he was a Walter E. Dakin Fellow at Sewanee Writers’ Conference in 2007 and Pyres, which has recently been translated into Japanese, is a 2008 Edgar Award nominee for Best First Novel by an American Author.

Dressed from head to toe in black, Nikitas said it was “the violence geek” in him, influenced by Quentin Tarentino, who inspired him as he wrote Pyres. He said it took him three years to write the book, and the mythology in the book was based on his master’s thesis about Swedish Norse Mythology.

The main character, Lucia, or Luc, is a punk-gothic teenager whose life becomes a surreal experience throughout the course of the novel.

“Luc is me and friends of mine when I was a teenager,” Nikitas said. He said she was based on some of his students.

Nikitas’s reading — or performance — was superb. The room was packed and the audience captivated. He personified characters by changing the tone of his voice from a slack-jawed hick one moment and a stoic cop the next.

He was humorous, engaging, serious and raw. He was so absorbed in what he was reading, so invested in the words on the pages that he literally shook the podium at one point while he was gripping its sides. In another instance, his voice sounded like it was cracking, as if the words spoke to him so deeply he was going to break into tears.

Nikitas also read a chapter from the novel he is currently working on, tentatively titled, Love Will Tear Us Apart. He characterized people by giving them nicknames related to their physical appearances, such as “Meth Mouth,” and with comments like, “Whatever wiggles your jowls, deputy dog.”

Lastly, Anne Panning said the two writers who cancelled their readings due to the weather have rescheduled. Amy Bloom, author of Away, plans to do a reading in the fall semester, Sept. 10, 2008 and A. Van Jordan, author of Quantum Lyrics, should be coming Wednesday, May 7, 2008.

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