‘Catalyst Sessions’ recap: Tiffany Razzano of Wordier Than Thou
With an eye on the ever-present COVID-19 threat, and mindful that any plans made are subject to its whims, Wordier Than Thou founder and executive director Tiffany Razzano is looking at fall dates for her next in-person events (the first since March), including the uber-popular Gulfport haunted house (with actors putting on a scripted, spooky show in every room) and the literary “roast” of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald.
In the meantime, Wordier – the eight-year-old literary organization that takes its mission, but not itself, terribly seriously – has been a near-constant presence in the virtual world.
“We’ve had something like 73 events so far,” Razzano explained Monday on The Catalyst Sessions, “in about a two and a half month period.”
They’re all there, listed chronologically in the Events section on the Wordier Facebook page: Quarantine Storytime, the Virtual Personal Library Tour, the poetry and prose open mic, “Tell Us About Your Quarantine,” the “Teenage Wasteland” Virtual Edition and more.
Author, writers, scribes, journalists, diarists, they all click in to watch and listen to Tiffany Razzano and one (and sometimes more) of their own read, armchair-tour and otherwise explain their work and their current views on things.
Not that the Wordier Than Thou chief had a lot of virtual-world experience when this whole thing started out of necessity.
“I’m still learning,” Razzano said. “I’m awful with new technology. But I had to stumble my way through it, because I knew that we needed to connect with our friends, and our fans, and our creative community.”
A full-time journalist, Razzano’s love and appreciation of words and the literary universe is boundless.
“I just never have the energy to do my own creative writing, which is unfortunate,” she lamented. “I have plenty of ideas floating around in my brain, but I Just always feel like I’m on deadline.
“Wordier Than Thou is kind of like a way for me to play a little bit, and be creative and have fun. Even though it’s bringing people together to celebrate other writers.”
Today on The Catalyst Sessions: American Stage’s associate artistic director Kristin Clippard.
Weeknights at 7 on the Catalyst Facebook page. All Catalyst Sessions are archived on the Catalyst YouTube page.
