I must speak about the evening before day three before I gush over the last day of the Literature Festival. The evening on day two consisted of two readings, the first by Brian Doyle and the second was more of a concert reading from Robert Pinski. I was shaken to my core in different ways by both these men.
   Brian Doyle was all over the place before his introduction. He walked around the auditorium speaking with both fans and colleagues. The speaker introducing him happened to be in the seat beside of me, the head of the creative writing department. This man stood behind the lectern and shared some of his thoughts and personal favorite writings by Mr. Doyle. I waited for Brian to take his place behind the lectern but he chose to walk around the room and into the aisles while speaking.
   Brian Doyle shared many stories of his life,career and faith. He told us that our writing shouldn't be about us saying, "It's not about you". He told us to always be typing, take notes and run to the computer and type away as soon as you can. Brian gave us all an assignment that night. He told us to read an essay he had handed out before he spoke before midnight, then make ten copies and pass them along with that same assignment. This was the story of Dawn and Mary. These were two women who put their lives down for the children at Sandy Hook Elementary. Brian used this to reinforce his earlier comment not writing just for yourself. I like the way he gave merit to his comment by using a story that shows the finest qualities in human beings in the face of certain death.
   Robert Pinski was quite different from the other guest speakers. He has taken his poetry and infused it with a jazzy kind of music. I was amazed by the live performance of poetry mixed with music. I had never witnessed this type of performance and was overwhelmed by his skill. At one point he read a poem and then performed it to demonstrate the difference. This was particularly enjoyable as I believe that he illustrated perfectly that written form can take on many different forms.