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Raymond Hansen writes: "The first reading took place shortly after the publication of the first Heidelberg Review (I was the editor but it was really a cooperative effort of the group). The venue was Vivian's bookshop, Between the Lines. The time was 1994. The HWG was pretty large at that time, 15-18 members, though at meetings we were usually 8-12. There were about 8-9 readers that first evening, as I recall. I served as the MC, introducing each reader. We had a pretty good crowd, filling the bookshop. Judith [Hansen] was in charge of refreshments, and lots of sandwiches, cake and wine were consumed. Several of the readers chose to read their pieces from that first issue of the Heidelberg Review.

"Our next event after that reading was a poetry slam to which we invited non-HWG folks to join us in making up some verses. Our poetry slams called for versifying in 10 minutes or so using a line from a book chosen at random. The results were very mixed and not a true test of poetic talent, but a lot of laughs."