Four Mondays of Poetry: Celebrating National Poetry Month
Auburn University at Montgomery will be hosting four events in celebration of Poetry Month (April). All events are free and open to the public.
Monday, April 8
Poetry workshop (limited to ten participants) with Barbara Wiedemann
Email
bwiedema@aum.edu for more information.
Wiedemann, professor of English and Director of Creative Writing at AUM, is the author of two chapbooks,
Half-Life of Love and
Sometime in October, both from Finishing Line Press with a third,
Death of a Pope and other Poems, to appear in May 2013.
Monday, April 15, 7:30 p.m.
Frank X Walker, Kentucky Poet Laureate
Goodwyn Hall 109, Auburn Montgomery
Frank X Walker, appointed Kentucky Poet Laureate for 2013-2014, is an Associate Professor in English and Director of the African American and Africana Studies program at the University of Kentucky. He is the originator of the word "Affrilachia," which reflects the union of Appalachian identity and the region's African-American culture and history, and he is the creator of the group The Affrilachian Poets.
Walker's first collection of poems carries the movement's name
Affrilachia, and his publications focus on social justice issues as well as themes of family, identity and place that challenge the notion of a homogeneous, all-white literary landscape in Kentucky and Appalachia. His sixth full collection of poetry,
Turn Me Loose: The Unghosting of Medgar Evers, is due out this spring from the University of Georgia Press.
Monday, April 22, 4 p.m. Open Mic at Booker T. Washington Magnet High School. Hosted by Foster Dickson and Auburn Montgomery. Open to all high school and college students.
Monday, April 29, 7:30 p.m.
Local Poets Reading: Susie Paul, Ed George, Jacqueline Allen Trimble, and Ransom Cole
Cloverdale Playhouse
Susie Paul is retired from the Department of English and Philosophy at AUM, where she taught writing, creative writing of poetry, American and British literature and was named a Distinguished Teaching Professor. Her poems have appeared in numerous magazines and journals across the past 20 years. She is at work on a series of poems about Mary Paul, a textile mill worker in Lowell, MA, during the nineteenth century.
Ed George is an attorney who lives in Prattville, Alabama. NewSouth Books recently published
Cosmic Latte, his third book of poetry. His prior collections are entitled
Midnight Coffee and
Espresso Evenings.
Jacqueline Allen Trimble began her writing life after learning the word “swiftly” in Mrs. Edna T. Mosley’s first grade class. During three decades as a college professor, she has taught everything from composition to critical theory and won numerous teaching awards. She served as department chair for seven years at Huntingdon College and currently chairs the Department of Languages and Literatures at Alabama State University.
Ransom Cole is an Alabama native and M.F.A. graduate of Northern Michigan University. His poetry has appeared in several journals, and he is currently working on his first full collection. He lists Maurice Manning, Jennifer Knox, and Bob Hicok as his influences.
“Four Mondays of Poetry” is sponsored by the Auburn University at Montgomery Lectures Committee, the AUM School of Liberal Arts, and the AUM Department of English and Philosophy.
For more information about these events, please contact Michel Aaij or Barbara Wiedeman.