(Butler, PA) A poem written by a 19-year-old English major and student editor of Butler County Community College’s annual art and literary magazine placed behind the works of only two published authors in the Writers Association of Northern Appalachia’s open-mic competition this fall.
“Cinq a Sept” – formally “five to seven” in French, and informally, “having an affair” between the hours of 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., Lydia Seaton said – placed third in a poetry category whose first- and second-place winners were a former English professor and a former producer and director for West Virginia Public Television.
The open-mic competition, held virtually for a second consecutive year, included the categories of poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction, said Dr. Christina Fisanick, president of the Writers Association of Northern Appalachia and an English professor at California University of Pennsylvania.
“Lydia was up against late-middle-aged writers who have had books published, college professors and graduate students in creative writing programs,” said Mike Dittman, a professor in BC3’s liberal arts division. “When you put that into context, you can see what an important award this was.”
“Lydia was up against late-middle-aged writers who have had books published, college professors and graduate students in creative writing programs. When you put that into context, you can see what an important award this was.”
Bonnie Proudfoot placed first in the poetry category. She is a former English professor at Hocking College in Nelsonville, Ohio, and is the author of “Goshen Road,” which was considered for the 2021 PEN/Hemingway Award for best debut novel.
Poet Mary Lucille DeBerry placed second. She worked for West Virginia Public Television and is the author of “Bertha Butcher’s Coat,” “Alice Saw the Beauty” and “Frogs, Fog and Flourishes.”
BC3 prof lauds voice in poem
Seaton, of Emlenton and a 2020 graduate of Allegheny-Clarion Valley High School in Foxburg, wrote her poem in sestina – “this really complicated French style of verse,” she said. “Basically six stanzas that are six lines each. At the end of each line, you pick six words and repeat the same six words, but in a different order.
“Then there is one final stanza that is three lines, and you repeat all six words within those three lines.”
Seaton wrote “Cinq a Sept” as part of Dittman’s spring 2021 creative writing class.
“Back then, you would speak to me in broken French
as we drank cheap, boxed wine
in that tiny apartment, suffocating in our youth…” her poem begins.
“Cinq a Sept” can be interpreted as “missing out on youth, the idea that as people get older, they can develop this resentment toward the life they lead,” Seaton said.
“In this poem, she really inhabits the voice of someone who is decades older than herself in a really authentic way,” Dittman said. “The poem sounds as if it were written by a middle-aged person lamenting their mid-life crisis.”
“I still think of our little facade, and the beauty of our bold, naive youth,” Seaton’s 323-word poem ends.
Seaton is the first BC3 student to be recognized in the Writers Association of Northern Appalachia’s annual competition, Dittman said.
“An example of really good poetry”
Two professional writers and a writing professor served as judges for the 2021 competition, Fisanick said.
“The judges were adamant that hers was an example of really good poetry,” Fisanick said of Seaton.
“One of our missions is not just to help writers of the region, but to encourage all writers at all levels to get involved,” Fisanick said. “Giving a platform and creating a community for writers who are well-established is important. But more important in a lot of ways is for emerging writers like Lydia to get the recognition and encouragement that they need to move forward.”
Seaton intends to become a journalist covering politics.
The third-place award “means a lot,” Seaton said. “I was really excited because I hate reading what I write, especially fiction. I don’t mind sharing my nonfiction work because I make a pretty good nonfiction writer. But when it comes to sharing creative work, especially poetry, it’s very vulnerable and very frightening.
“To hear that people received it well was comforting and reassuring. It gives you some of that confidence that you need to become a writer.”
Seaton expects to graduate from BC3 with an associate degree in English in May, then transfer to a four-year institution and major in English and minor in journalism.
BC3 student active on campus
She is a member of Rho Phi, BC3’s chapter of Phi Theta Kappa, an international academic honor society for two-year colleges and programs, and of BC3’s writers club.
Seaton has been named to BC3’s president’s list in each of her first two semesters. BC3’s president’s list recognizes students who achieved a grade-point average of 3.75 or higher during a semester in which they attained at least 12 credits.
She is also a student editor of FACETS, whose submissions are limited to current or former BC3 credit or noncredit students, and faculty, staff and administrators.
BC3’s annual art and literary magazine includes creative nonfiction, excerpts of plays and screenplays, photography, drawings, illustrations and photographs of sculptures and paintings.
The Writers Association of Northern Appalachia’s first competition as part of its inaugural conference was held in Wheeling, W.Va., in 2019.
Northern Appalachia includes counties from eastern to southern Ohio, northern West Virginia and northern Maryland, southern New York and across most of Pennsylvania.
