Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Lying to the Truth
Just read a great post over at readwritepoem by Ren Powell that discusses an important issue for me. Why do audiences often assume the stuff of poems is autobiographical? Blood Almanac was assigned for an undergraduate class one semester at my alma mater, and I got to discuss it with the students. (Very cool.) However, many of the students were distressed to learn that I have no children, even though the book contains poems in the first person where the speaker presents her troubling children. Powell raises some good points and adds a new voice to this not-so-recent debate.
My favorite quote:
Readings that begin with, “I wrote this for my grandmother who passed away last week,” frighten me. (Obviously, I have intimacy and trust issues.)
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2 comments:
Your book was assigned reading at CSB?! You KNOW you've arrived when college classes are reading your stuff. I'm very impressed, and I only wish I could have been in the class too.
Yes, S. Mara was so gracious to assign it a few years ago. I did a reading with two other CSB/SJU alums, although not from our time there: Yuko Taniguchi and John Coy. It was awesome! Here's a link to a triple interview a CSB student conducted about the event:
http://www.csbsju.edu/english/theenglishweb/fall-06/Coming_JoleneBrink.htm
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