Brookdale’s Visiting Writers Series welcomed their first guest of the spring semester 57-year-old author Diana Goestch of New York City. Students were able to hear the author of eight poems and an upcoming memoir on Tuesday, Feb 17 in Navesink I in the Warner Student Life Center. Upon invitation, some were able to have dinner with her and ask her questions prior to the reading and Q and A.

“You write what you know because it helps you find out what you need to know,” said Goestch, who gave the dinner attendees wisdom before preparing for the event.

Creative writing professor Suzanne Parker runs the Visiting Writers events and urged many to join the creative writing club before introducing the Goetsch, who jokingly promoted her books for sale in the back of the room. She then read poems ‘Backflip’, ‘One Good Thing’, and ‘You Could’ from her latest book titled ‘Nameless Boy’.

Although many had humorous tones with topics like the president’s unforgivable hair and her works that she called ‘bull**** poems, there were moments of earnest emotion with poems that reflected times in her life of transitioning.

“Sometimes the best subjects for writing are right in front of our face. I was hovering in my life. I went from ‘Can I?’ to ‘I bet I can’. Backflip was a metaphor for my transition, it was a certain calling to my body when I realized,” said Goestch.

Many music fans in the room gushed over her poem titled, ‘Bowie’, a powerful nod of appreciation to the late star David Bowie.

“But I’m glad I at least got to Bowie, who was so far beyond gay or straight, a creature so wildly human there was no word for him yet, which is why he needed another planet to be from, a planet I needed to find,” she recited.

After the readings and question segment, people who had never been to a Visiting Writer Series were lining up to buy Goestch’s works. Many in the crowd of around fifty people cried during some of the emotional readings, touched and inspired by her work. Although much of the audience were first-time attendees of the event, several people plan to attend the future two.

“This is not my first visiting writer series. They’re such an eye-opening experience and you get to meet nationally recognized authors. It gives you an opportunity to know authors on a personal level. It’s beneficial for anyone who wants to get into writing again or reading. When you see the person perform it’s really amazing,” said 20-year-old secretary of the creative writing club Indira Yael Moscosa.

For anyone who missed the event, they can find this event as well as previous ones on Brookdale TV. The next events of the Visiting Writers Series will be on April 1 and 28 and are open to everyone looking to be inspired in the art of writing.