It was 7 p.m. on a Wednesday, and it was raining outside, but the Terrace Room in the English building was packed, and for good reason. Stegner Fellows Nina Schloesser and Ryan Teitman each read from their recent works – the former from the first chapter of a novel-in-progress and the latter several poems – to a warm and enthusiastic audience who was not disappointed.

Schloesser started out hesitant, quiet, with what could have been a slight accent, reading with her head down – she needn’t have. The subject matter was unorthodox – her protagonist was a slightly insecure, novice pickup artist at a gay bar – and the introduction somewhat protracted, as she spent quite some time developing the main character’s psychology, but as soon as she got to the action of the story, Schloesser had the audience chuckling at the character’s awkward and increasingly desperate antics. She finished her excerpt to resounding applause and even, if it may be believed, a few catcalls.

Teitman’s poetry drew from his experiences as a journalist and his first-hand knowledge of several cities. His reading was bookended by an ode to his childhood hometown of Philadelphia and an equally nuanced depiction of one of San Francisco’s well-known secrets, the Sutro Baths. Some of his other poems are influenced by art, including one that was inspired by a maker of stained glass windows and another by Gustave Moreau’s painting “Orpheus,” on loan to the de Young Museum from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. His audience listened in rapt attention to his words, some even sitting with their eyes closed, slight smiles on their lips, as if picturing the images he painted in their minds’ eye. As one audience member remarked after the reading, “I’ll have that image of a burning hawk seared into my mind forever.”

Indeed, despite the lateness of the hour and the long commute that some of the audience had ahead of them – there were quite a few people who had come down from San Francisco – nearly the entire room stayed afterwards to personally congratulate Schloesser and Teitman on a fine night’s work. Said Teitman of the crowd, “I think it’s wonderful that the department provides this space for us, and everyone in the creative writing community is so supportive. We had a great turnout tonight.” If this is the quality we come to expect of these readings, then we may expect Stegner Fellows to continue to read for a full house.