Friday, February 7, 2014

Heather Christle Reading

What: Heather Christle Poetry Reading and Discussion
Date: Thursday, 13 February 2014
Time: 6:00pm – 7:15pm
Location: Case Western Reserve University
Room: Clarke Hall, Room 206 (map)

In conjunction with the Baker-Nord Center for the Humanities, the Helen B. Sharnoff Poetry Fund, and the SAGES and English Departments, please join us for an evening of poetry with Heather Christle.

Christle will read from her collection The Trees The Trees (Octopus Books, 2011), as well as other work. Her performance will be followed by a question-and-answer session.

This event is free and open to the public.

It would be very much appreciated if you could spread this announcement and/or word of the event over the course of the next few days.

Heather Christle is the author of What Is Amazing (Wesleyan University Press, 2012), The Difficult Farm (Octopus Books, 2009), and The Trees The Trees (Octopus Books, 2011), which won the 2012 Believer Poetry Award. Her poems have appeared in publications including Boston Review, Gulf Coast, The New Yorker, and The Best American Poetry. She has taught poetry at Antioch College, Sarah Lawrence College, the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Emory University, where she was the 2009-2011 Poetry Writing Fellow. She is the Web Editor for jubilat and frequently a writer in residence at the Juniper Summer Writing Institute. A native of Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, she lives in Yellow Springs, Ohio.

UPDATE: 07 FEB 2014

For next class session, please read Heather Christle's The Trees The Trees (Octopus Books, 2011) and be prepared to discuss the collection.

Additionally, you will need to turn in a hard-copy of a typed, two-page, double-space response to the book. Your response essay should engage Christle's book using one of the critical articles, essays, or chapters we've read so far this semester. To do so, please look at how writers such as Stephen Burt, James Longenbach, Richard Archambeau, or Elisa Gabbert critically engage with a poem. Think of their writing as a model for how you can approach Christe's book. Ultimately, you'll want to provide a close reading of one of two poems in the collection that are emblematic of The Trees The Tree's broader concerns or aesthetic traits.

In addition to being two-pages, double-spaced and typed, your responses should be in 12-point Times New Roman font with standard one inch margins. You name should appear in the top, right-hand corner and the essay should be formatted according to MLA-stlye guidelines. To this end, you should be properly quoting  both Chistle's book and at least one of the articles.

By Wednesday at 4pm, everyone should email three questions that they would like to ask Christle after her reading. These questions should engage her poems and the critical readings directly; moreover, they should be formed in such a manner that they will prompt extended discussion, not just "Yes" or "No" answers. I will read over your questions and provide feedback for how they can be improved. You will be expected to ask all the poets questions after their readings.

On Thursday, instead of having a regular class session, Heather Christle will be reading. I will provide more information regarding the reading in Tuesday's class session.

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Matt Hart Poetry Reading

What: Matt Hart Poetry Reading and Discussion
Date: Thursday, 06 February 2014
Time: 6:00pm – 7:15pm
Location: Case Western Reserve University
Room: Guilford Hall Parlor 206 (map)

--Please note that this reading will not be held in the same room as last week's reading.

Join us for an evening of poetry with Matt Hart. He will read from her most recent collection Debacle Debacle (H_ NGM_N Books, 2013), as well as other work. His performance will be followed by a question-and-answer session. This event is free and open to the public. It would be very much appreciated if you could spread this announcement and/or word of the event over the course of the next few days.

Matt Hart is the author of five books of poems, Who's Who Vivid (Slope Editions, 2006), Wolf Face (H_NGM_N Books, 2010), Light-Headed (BlazeVOX, 2011), Sermons and Lectures Both Blank and Relentless (Typecast Publishing, 2012), and Debacle Debacle (H_NGM_N Books, 2013), as well as several chapbooks. Additionally, his poems, reviews, and essays have appeared in numerous print and online journals, including Big Bell, Cincinnati Review, Coldfront, Columbia Poetry Review, H_NGM_N, Harvard Review, jubilat, Lungfull!, and Post Road, among others. His awards include a Pushcart Prize, a 2013 individual artist grant from The Shifting Foundation, and fellowships from both the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Warren Wilson College MFA Program for Writers. A co-founder and the editor-in-chief of Forklift, Ohio: A Journal of Poetry, Cooking & Light Industrial Safety, he lives in Cincinnati where he teaches at the Art Academy of Cincinnati and plays in the band TRAVEL.