Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Tracy K. Smith visited Butler this week. She read new and old poems and told stories of their provenance. She also spent a good amount of time after the reading (and during a dedicated Q&A the day after) answering questions ranging in subject from poetic craft to motherhood to space travel.
Smith was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her 2011 collection Life on Mars. She teaches at Princeton University.
Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Tracy K. Smith visited Butler this week. She read new and old poems and told stories of their provenance. She also spent a good amount of time after the reading (and during a dedicated Q&A the day after) answering questions ranging in subject from poetic craft to motherhood to space travel.
Smith was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her 2011 collection Life on Mars. She teaches at Princeton University.
Rachel Sahaidachny, a Butler poetry MFA, has been awarded an Indiana Poetry Award by the state’s Poet Laureate, George Kalamaras. Her poem, “My Locks Tangle in the Manhole Cover,” received first-place in the “Urban” category of the awards. We sat down with Rachel to talk about her achievement.
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Your poem, “My Locks Tangle in the Manhole Cover” won first prize in the Indiana Poetry Awards and was featured in the Wabash Watershed. How did you hear about the contest? Why did you decide to submit?
I actually came across the contest on Twitter, on a tweet from @literateindy — which is really random because I am hardly ever even on Twitter. I would have found out about it other ways too, though. I work for the Indiana Writers Center, and George Kalamaras submitted it as news for our e-blast. I try to keep up with what is going on in Indiana with regards to poetry, so I felt like this was a really great opportunity. I can be kind of horrible about making submissions, but I thought — oh this one is meant for me! I’m in Indiana and I’m a poet. The contest was divided into two categories (urban and rural), and I wasn’t really sure I had anything that would “fit”. I think on the last day, it occurred to me that this poem might “work”. So, I sent it in.
How did the poem come about? When and where did you start writing it?
I remember this poem kind of coming to me one line at a time, over the course of a week or two. I think I was writing it on my iPhone notes app! The poem came at me from a few different angles. I had this project I was working on dealing with the persona of a mermaid who’d been floating around in my notebooks for a couple of years, and I was trying to pin her down for a series of poems. I looked out of one of those big windows from Johnson Hall, third floor, and the sky looked so black. I walked the streets of my neighborhood and watched the seed pods opening and splitting. When I think of winter I think of how dry the air gets, the way the roads crumble. Mostly I just paid attention to the images around me, and let them sort of swirl into the persona I was working with.
The poem features a variety of urban city images — pavement, hot tar, manhole covers — have you always lived around big cities?
Yes. I love big cities. I also really like the idea of exploring the intersection of man and nature, and deciphering some balance between the two.
What’re your plans for your writing, moving forward?
Oh. Lots. Of course I’ll be sticking with this MFA program. I try to have a couple of lit mags in mind to submit work to every month. I also am tracking down a writers conference or two I might like to attend next year.
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A hearty congrats to Rachel on her success. You can read the award-winning poem here.
Rachel Sahaidachny, a Butler poetry MFA, has been awarded an Indiana Poetry Award by the state’s Poet Laureate, George Kalamaras. Her poem, “My Locks Tangle in the Manhole Cover,” received first-place in the “Urban” category of the awards. We sat down with Rachel to talk about her achievement.
—
Your poem, “My Locks Tangle in the Manhole Cover” won first prize in the Indiana Poetry Awards and was featured in the Wabash Watershed. How did you hear about the contest? Why did you decide to submit?
I actually came across the contest on Twitter, on a tweet from @literateindy — which is really random because I am hardly ever even on Twitter. I would have found out about it other ways too, though. I work for the Indiana Writers Center, and George Kalamaras submitted it as news for our e-blast. I try to keep up with what is going on in Indiana with regards to poetry, so I felt like this was a really great opportunity. I can be kind of horrible about making submissions, but I thought — oh this one is meant for me! I’m in Indiana and I’m a poet. The contest was divided into two categories (urban and rural), and I wasn’t really sure I had anything that would “fit”. I think on the last day, it occurred to me that this poem might “work”. So, I sent it in.
How did the poem come about? When and where did you start writing it?
I remember this poem kind of coming to me one line at a time, over the course of a week or two. I think I was writing it on my iPhone notes app! The poem came at me from a few different angles. I had this project I was working on dealing with the persona of a mermaid who’d been floating around in my notebooks for a couple of years, and I was trying to pin her down for a series of poems. I looked out of one of those big windows from Johnson Hall, third floor, and the sky looked so black. I walked the streets of my neighborhood and watched the seed pods opening and splitting. When I think of winter I think of how dry the air gets, the way the roads crumble. Mostly I just paid attention to the images around me, and let them sort of swirl into the persona I was working with.
The poem features a variety of urban city images — pavement, hot tar, manhole covers — have you always lived around big cities?
Yes. I love big cities. I also really like the idea of exploring the intersection of man and nature, and deciphering some balance between the two.
What’re your plans for your writing, moving forward?
Oh. Lots. Of course I’ll be sticking with this MFA program. I try to have a couple of lit mags in mind to submit work to every month. I also am tracking down a writers conference or two I might like to attend next year.
—
A hearty congrats to Rachel on her success. You can read the award-winning poem here.
New Butler MFA’s (“bulldog pups,” as nobody actually calls them) were welcomed to the next phase of their writing lives with an event at the Efroymson Center for Creative Writing. Young talent eager to begin their graduate writing careers nibbled hors d’oeuvres and enjoyed an array of complimentary adult beverages while alternately hiding from and casually trying to impress professors, alumni, and other Butler literati. As you’ll see from the images below, the tasteful bacchanal provided all who partook a welcome audit of the Butler MFA cast (and three different kinds of pita dip).
New Butler MFA’s (“bulldog pups,” as nobody actually calls them) were welcomed to the next phase of their writing lives with an event at the Efroymson Center for Creative Writing. Young talent eager to begin their graduate writing careers nibbled hors d’oeuvres and enjoyed an array of complimentary adult beverages while alternately hiding from and casually trying to impress professors, alumni, and other Butler literati. As you’ll see from the images below, the tasteful bacchanal provided all who partook a welcome audit of the Butler MFA cast (and three different kinds of pita dip).