Marilyn Kallet’s poem “Fireflies” will appear this week in newspapers around the country
August 2, 2010 Marilyn Kallet’s poem “Firelies” is this week’s offering from American Life in Poetry. About it former Poet Laureate Ted Kooser writes, “Over the years I have read many poems about fireflies, but of all of them hers seems to offer the most and dearest peace.”
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The poetry of Robert Hass is surveyed in a new collection
July 22, 2010 Former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Hass has been lauded for his work for more than three decades. The Apple Trees at Olema brings together selected poems from each of his five award-winning collections, as well as new work, and gives readers a glimpse into the evolution of one of our greatest living poets. Robert Hass will give a public reading at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference on July 23 at 11 a.m.
Read moreJuly 14, 2010 Kate Daniels is the author of three volumes of poetry, including The Niobe Poems and Four Testimonies: Poems. Her first volume, The White Wave was awarded the Agnes Lynch Starrett Prize for Poetry. Her MFA is from Columbia University. Her poems have been anthologized in a number of publications and have appeared in journals such as American Poetry Review, Critical Quarterly, and The Southern Review. She has also edited a volume of poems by Muriel Rukeyser and co-edited a book about Robert Bly: Of Solitude and Silence. Her fourth collection of poetry, A Walk in Victoria’s Secret, will appear in October from LSU Press.
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Poet Frank X Walker raises race awareness in the mountains
July 10, 2010 Frank X Walker grew up in Danville, Kentucky, a part of Appalachia. This mountainous region is still considered an area inhabited only by poor, white people. As an African-American, Walker knows better, and he coined the term Affrilachian to describe himself and others like him. “I believe it is my responsibility to say as loudly and often as possible that people and artists of color are part of the past and present of the multi-state Appalachian region extending from northern Mississippi to southern New York,” Walker says. He will read from and discuss his work as part of the Tennessee Young Writers’ Workshop on July 13 at 7 p.m. in the Gentry Auditorium at Austin Peay State University, and he answered a few questions from Chapter 16 in advance of his appearance.
Read moreJuly 2, 2010 Jeff Hardin, a native of Savannah, Tennessee, lives in Columbia and is a professor of English at Columbia State Community College. A graduate of Austin Peay State University and the University of Alabama, where he received an MFA degree in creative writing, Hardin is the author of two chapbooks, Deep in the Shallows (GreenTower Press) and The Slow Hill Out (Pudding House), as well as one book-length collection, Fall Sanctuary, recipient of the Nicholas Roerich Prize. His poems have appeared in many journals, including The Hudson Review, The Southern Review, The Gettysburg Review, Ploughshares, Southwest Review, Poetry Northwest, Poet Lore, Meridian, Southern Poetry Review, and Zone 3. “Always Upstream or Downstream” first appeared in The Florida Review.
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Scholar John Lang examines the many faces of God in Appalachian poetry
June 16, 2010 In Six Poets from the Mountain South, John Lang argues that Appalachian literature may reject harsh fundamentalism, but it also embraces a spirituality inspired by the mountain landscape.
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