| Visiting Writers Series Invigorates Literature Scene at CC | |
| By Jen Kulier Photos by Tom Kimmell |
"When I hear an author speak, I like to write stuff down and keep it close to me for a while so it can sink in,” says Joanna Cantor ’06, editor-in-chief of CC’s Leviathan literary magazine. Cantor regularly attends Visiting Writers Series events at Colorado College, and says she’d come even if she weren’t an English major; she enjoys writing and finds it inspiring to hear working writers tell their stories.
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| Poet Mark Irwin spoke at the first event of the 2004-05 Visiting Writers Series at CC. |
Liberal arts and sciences major Avery Bloom ’05 also likes to hear writers read their work. Bloom attended a reading by poet Mark Irwin, whose poetry tells of his own childhood rituals and memories. “It’s interesting to hear someone interpret life experiences in a literary way,” Bloom says.
Every year, a collection of wonderful writers — some well-known, others up-and-coming — speaks at Colorado College, drawing listeners from campus and the community at large. While writers have come to speak at CC for many years, Professor David Mason ’78 in 1998 began publishing and promoting a calendar, so people could plan to attend specific events or work them into their classes.
Student attendance at the series cheers English Professor Chris Bachelder, who organized this year’s series with Professor Jane Hilberry. “It’s very exciting! Student participation is excellent,” Bachelder says. “One of the great things we do at CC is to build our visiting writers into our syllabi; that makes it exciting for students because they get to hear someone or meet someone whose work they’ve just read.”
Excitement about literature at CC is especially heartening given the dreary news about how nobody reads anymore.
“It’s really scary — there are fewer and fewer people who read even one novel in a year, much less a book of poetry — nobody reads poetry anymore. I’d like to think that we’re fighting that battle,” Bachelder says. “Even here, I sense that there are not as many students today who are as in love with reading as were previously. Too many things are competing for their attention. But admittedly, CC is different. This isn’t exactly the front line of the literacy battle. Students here are pretty well-read and interested.”
Information on the Visiting Writers Series is available here.
VisitingWriters.asp or by calling (719) 389-6853. All readings are free and open to the public.
The Visiting Writers Series is made possible by the support of John Ebey ’63 and the dean’s office. Additional assistance is provided by the D.J. MacLean Endowed Fund for English, the Donner Canadian Scholars Program, ABC Bank, and the Andrew Norman Lecture Fund of the Hulbert Center for Southwestern Studies.
Alumnus Published in Hudson Review
CC produces its share of recognized writers, including the authors of recently published books listed on the next two pages. In addition, two poems by Ethan Stebbins ’03, “Maintenance” and “Requiem,” appeared in the Winter 2004 issue of The Hudson Review.
An excerpt from “Maintenance”:
What she leaves serves only as reminder:
the lovely things, unfolded on stalks, green
from the cleaned, black earth. The dead leaves
and the weeds fall in piles behind her —
everything is placed in the right place but her
and him, up in the crab apple, hacking
away at the festering gypsy-moth nests
with the sure, uncanny rhythm of a reflex
When he’s done he’ll start the mower; the smell of lilacs
will mix strangely with gasoline and cut gras
Reprinted by permission from The Hudson Review, Volume LVI, No. 4 (Winter 2004). Copyright ©2004 by Ethan Stebbins.
2004-05 Visiting Writers Series
Some of this year’s speakers include:
David Whyte
Whyte is a poet and renowned public speaker; his books include “Everything is Waiting for You” and “Crossing the Unknown Sea.”
Richard Yañez
An El Paso native and former Riley Scholar at CC, Yañez wrote “El Paso del Norte: Stories on the Border.”
Jane Wampler and Aaron Anstett
Wampler received the Writers Exchange Award from Poets & Writers and a Colorado Council on the Arts fellowship. Anstett is a widely published poet and author of “Sustenance.”
Nancy Knipe, Andrea Lucard, and Jessy Randall
Knipe won first place in the Glimmer Train Very Short Fiction competition. Lucard, CC’s assistant vice president for development, recently finished a novel. Randall, the archivist at CC’s Tutt Library, wrote a poetry chapbook titled “Slumber Party at the Aquarium.”
Terry Tempest Williams
Renowned essayist, nature writer, and social activist Williams’s books include “Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place” and “Red: Patience and Passion in the Desert.”
Jenn Habel and Jane Hilberry
Habel’s poems appear in Southern Poetry Review, Greensboro Review, and other magazines. Hilberry’s new book of poems is “Body Painting.”
David Mason
Mason, an associate professor of English at CC, has published numerous volumes of poetry.
Austin Clarke
A Canadian writer who was born and raised in Barbados, Clarke is the author of 15 works of fiction, including the award-winning novel “The Polished Hoe.”
Demetria Martinez
An author, columnist, and activist, Martinez is known for her work with the Sanctuary Movement as well as her books “The Devil’s Workshop” and “Mother Tongue.”
Barry Lopez
Lopez is a National Book Award-winning environmental writer whose books include “Resistance” and “Arctic Dreams.”