Spring Break
Pulitzer Prize poet, alum to read at SLC
SETH McKELVEY
Issue date: 1/16/08 Section: Variety
Natasha Trethewey wears her poems in her voice and on her body.
The 2007 Pulitzer Prize-winning University alumnus will read a selection of her work today at the Student Learning Center.
"Her poems are just so beautifully phrased and structured," said David Ingle, assistant editor of The Georgia Review, which sponsors the event. "They're just so graceful."
Where: SLC Room 171
Dr. Ed Pavlic, director of the creative writing program for the University's English department, said that Trethewey's work is very functional and direct.
"This is very much a public poetry. She's recovering a sense of life which is very much a shared sense of life," Pavlic said. "I think there is a translation between the page, the work and truths people can really enact in their everyday lives."
Trethewey's poetry creates a vivid image in the mind, said Dr. Barbara McCaskill, associate English professor at the University, who has a focus on African-American literature.
"She, as a writer, uses the camera and calls our attention to visual details," said McCaskill.
"What attracts me to her work in particular, is the way in which she incorporates African-American musical styles," said McCaskill.
"Most of her poems are based in the South, looking at Southern life, and Southern history," said Pavlic.
"I think she thinks that much of the lived reality of Southern life has been kind of buried under various kinds of mythologies."
He said Trethewey tries to debunk these misrepresentations of Southern life and history in her work.
"One of the words she uses a lot in talking about writing is 'erasure,'" said Pavlic.
"She's kind of trying to make up for the fact that certain things have been erased, and people's experiences have been erased."
Trethewey also brings a greater understanding of her work when she performs them, said Pavlic.
"She really found her way all the way into those poems, truly wearing them in her voice and body, in a way I thought was just terrific," he said.
The 2007 Pulitzer Prize-winning University alumnus will read a selection of her work today at the Student Learning Center.
"Her poems are just so beautifully phrased and structured," said David Ingle, assistant editor of The Georgia Review, which sponsors the event. "They're just so graceful."
NATASHA TRETHEWEY
When: 4 todayWhere: SLC Room 171
Dr. Ed Pavlic, director of the creative writing program for the University's English department, said that Trethewey's work is very functional and direct.
"This is very much a public poetry. She's recovering a sense of life which is very much a shared sense of life," Pavlic said. "I think there is a translation between the page, the work and truths people can really enact in their everyday lives."
Trethewey's poetry creates a vivid image in the mind, said Dr. Barbara McCaskill, associate English professor at the University, who has a focus on African-American literature.
"She, as a writer, uses the camera and calls our attention to visual details," said McCaskill.
"What attracts me to her work in particular, is the way in which she incorporates African-American musical styles," said McCaskill.
"Most of her poems are based in the South, looking at Southern life, and Southern history," said Pavlic.
"I think she thinks that much of the lived reality of Southern life has been kind of buried under various kinds of mythologies."
He said Trethewey tries to debunk these misrepresentations of Southern life and history in her work.
"One of the words she uses a lot in talking about writing is 'erasure,'" said Pavlic.
"She's kind of trying to make up for the fact that certain things have been erased, and people's experiences have been erased."
Trethewey also brings a greater understanding of her work when she performs them, said Pavlic.
"She really found her way all the way into those poems, truly wearing them in her voice and body, in a way I thought was just terrific," he said.
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