Creative writing students performed their poetry for more than 60 peers, an audience much larger than their class of 15.

The fall 2011 advanced poetry writing class hosted a poetry reading Sunday for National Poetry Month where 11 students performed.

“It was a beautiful reading and many people, including faculty, said they were extremely impressed by the high quality of all the poems and the manner in which they were read by the students who wrote them,” Marti Mihalyi, assistant professor of English, said.

Mihalyi said many of the students in the advanced poetry writing class, who put on the poetry reading, were not English majors.

Senior Tyler Keal, a psychology major, performed three poems Sunday.

“I took one creative writing class my sophomore year and I loved it,” Keal said. “I just really fell in love with the creative writing program.”

The pieces performed often went through rewrites through the Monday night workshop class.

“People spent tons of time on their stuff and went through multiple drafts,” Keal said. “We would go over them in class and they’d bring them back another week, and that’s not including one-on-one with (Mihalyi).”

Everyone enrolled in the poetry class had either taken Introduction to Poetry Writing or Introduction to Creative Writing, where students spent six weeks discussing poetry.

“Most students in the large group of poets were not English majors, but had been so interested from their (introduction) course in creative writing that they chose to go on to an advanced course,” Mihalyi said.

Mihalyi introduced the idea of a public poetry reading at the beginning of the semester.

The class decided to hold the event in April, to coincide with National Poetry month.

Junior Sam Beecher attended the event despite not having any English classes.

“I was interested in going because I enjoy writing and reading, and I wanted to see students share a part of themselves,” Beecher said.

Keal saw the event as a way of showcasing some different talent at Baker.

“I think that there are a lot of really talented writers here, and the program with Mihalyi is so great,” Keal said.

The event offered students the opportunity to showcase what they have been working on all year.

“People put every bit of their effort into their writing, just like people playing sports and stuff like that,” Keal said. “You don’t hear anything about the writers here. You hear about sports, but people are putting just as much work into their writing.”