FMU’s art and literary journal, “The Snow Island Review” (SIR), hosted a poetry slam on Feb. 17 2016.

Participants read their poetry and competed against one another. There were two prizes at the event. The prize for first place was a $20 gift card to Barnes and Noble, and the second place prize was a $10 gift card to Barnes and Noble. Students who were not poets or did not wish to participate were invited by SIR to come and enjoy the event.

Dr. Mica Hilson began the program by explaining how a poetry slam should be different than a poetry reading.

Hilson described how much more energetic participants should be due to the competitive nature of the event. He wanted each poet to bring their emotion to the poetry.

“Get your whole body, get your whole voice into it,” Hilson said.

Hilson and a volunteer from the audience judged the event along with junior English major Mason Jones. Jones serves as the assistant editor of SIR.

Seven poets participated in the poetry slam. Jake Pack, a freshman history major, won first place. He performed two of his original poems, “Long Car Rides and Leather Seats” and “A Deal with the Moon.”

Jones said he felt that the poetry slam was a success. Although he would have appreciated having a wider variety of talent at the poetry slam, he said he felt that the students’ talent was good.

“Seeing students come out and share their work is always a good experience,” Jones said.

Jones said that the judging criteria were largely subjective.

“It’s hard to judge poetry, especially when it’s read as opposed to written,” Jones said. “So much of the judging was based on a combination of performance and content.”

Jones added that SIR is planning for a bigger turnout at their next poetry slam, and they are planning how to best do this.

“[We want to] add in more poets and maybe even include spoken-word and non-poetry content as well to showcase the breadth of Snow Island Review,” Jones said.

Currently, SIR is published once a year. This publication occurs near the end of the spring semester. All FMU students are invited by the SIR to submit their creative works.

The next event that the SIR staff will be hosting is a G-Week event which will be held on March 2, 2016. People of all genders and sexual orientations will be reading poetry that reflects their views and perspectives on relevant topics.