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Jump to:
In Verse’s “Women of Troy” to Air on
Public Radio Stations Nationwide on November 5th FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE “Women of Troy,” the first installment of the In Verse series featuring the work of award-winning poet Susan B. A. Somers-Willett and world-class photographer Brenda Ann Kenneally, will air on the nationally distributed Public Radio International/WNYC program Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen the weekend of November 5, 2009.
In Verse: Women of Troy from InVerse on Vimeo. In Verse is a multi-media project that combines poetry, photography and audio footage to create “documentary poems” for radio, the web, print and iPhone. The “Women of Troy” installment features Somers-Willett and Kenneally as they document the effects of the economic crisis on the lives of working mothers in Troy, New York. Labor historians have argued that Troy was the prototype for the industrialization of America and “the most important city during the Industrial Revolution.” Troy’s beginnings stand in stark contrast to its current social conditions. Today, the median income for a family of three is just under $17,000; most families in Troy survive on minimum wage jobs. This collaborative work grows from Kenneally's multi-year reporting project “Upstate Girls.” The collaboration has resulted in a suite of poems written by Somers-Willett, a number of photographs by Kenneally, and essays by both artists that are published in the Fall 2009 issue of Virginia Quarterly Review. The title poem from “Women of Troy,” presented alongside Kenneally’s powerful and intimate photographs, is also available on Vimeo and You Tube as a multimedia slideshow. The audio installment of “Women of Troy” will be available on the Studio 360 website on Thursday, November 5 and will air on many public radio stations on November 6-8. For a complete listing of cities and times, visit the Studio 360 Station Listings page. A discussion with the artists about the project will occur in the weeks following the broadcast at Transom.org, a Peabody Award-winning website dedicated to channeling innovative work in public radio. Susan B. A. Somers-Willett is the author of two books of poetry, Quiver and Roam, and a book of criticism, The Cultural Politics of Slam Poetry: Race, Identity, and the Performance of Popular Verse in America. Her honors include the Ann Stanford Poetry Prize and an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship. Raised in New Orleans, she is an Assistant Professor teaching creative writing at Montclair State University in New Jersey. Visit her website at www.susansw.com. Brenda Ann Kenneally is an independent photojournalist whose photos of Troy, New York, appeared in the 2009 World Press Photo exhibition. A chronicler of coming-of-age in post-industrial America, her project, “Upstate Girls: What Became of Collar City” was awarded first place at the World Press Awards for Daily Life Stories in 2009, and an honorable Mention at UNICEF Photo of the Year. Visit her website at: www.brendakenneally.com. The next In Verse installment features Pulitzer-Prize winning poet Natasha Trethewey and photographer Joshua Cogan as they cover the ongoing recovery on the Mississippi Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina. The Gulfport installment, entitled “Congregation,” will air on Studio 360 the weekend of November 12 and also appears in the Fall 2009 issue of Virginia Quarterly Review. In Verse is possible though Public Radio Makers Quest 2.0, an initiative of AIR, the Association of Independents in Radio, Incorporated. This project is made possible with funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In Verse is also generously supported by Virginia Quarterly Review. Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen is the broadcast partner for In Verse. In Verse was created by Ted Genoways and Lu Olkowski. For more information, tune into In Verse on Facebook and Twitter. 5/15/2009 The Cultural Politics of Slam Poetry by Susan B. A. Somers-Willett Released FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
With a special focus on African American poets, Susan B. A. Somers-Willett explores the pros and cons of identity representation in the commercial arena of spoken word poetry and, in doing so, situates slam within a history of verse performance, from blackface minstrelsy to Def Poetry. What's revealed is a race-based dynamic of authenticity lying at the heart of American culture. Rather than being mere reflections of culture, Somers-Willett argues, slams are culture--sites where identities and political values get publicly refigured and exchanged between poets and audiences. A veteran of the National Poetry Slam scene for over a dozen years, Somers-Willett holds a Ph.D. in American Literature and an MA in creative writing from the University of Texas at Austin. She has taught at Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Illinois, and the University of Texas and is the author of two books of poetry, Quiver and Roam. In 2009, she joins the faculty at Montclair State University as Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing. Marc Smith, founder and creator of the poetry slam, says of the book: "Finally, a clear, accurate, and thoroughly researched examination of slam poetry, a movement begun in 1984 by a mixed bag of nobody poets in Chicago. At conception, slam poetry espoused universal humanistic ideals and a broad spectrum of participants, and especially welcome is the book's analysis of how commercial marketing forces succeeded in narrowing public perception of slam to the factionalized politics of race and identity. The author's knowledge of American slam at the national level is solid and more authentic than many of the slammers who claim to be." To request a review copy of The Cultural Politics of Slam Poetry or receive more information about the book, visit http://www.press.umich.edu or contact Michael Kehoe, Marketing Director, University of Michigan Press, 839 Greene Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48104-3209, Phone: 734-936-0388, E-mail: mkehoe@umich.edu. 3/15/2009 Quiver, Poems by Susan B. A. Somers-Willett, Now Available FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Somers-Willett will read from her book on Thursday, April 2 at 7:30 PM at the Avaya Auditorium at the University of Texas at Austin as part of the Michener Center for Writers Reading Series. She will also read with National Poetry Series winner Anna Journey at Bookpeople in Austin on April 26 at 3 PM. For more information about these and other upcoming readings, visit Somers-Willett’s website: http://www.susansw.com/events.htm. Quiver is a collection of poems that seeks to reconcile the empirical truths of science with the emotional truths of human experience. Through an ambitious set of poetic series and sequences, Somers-Willett reinvents the love poem, rendering an exquisite world where the graph of a mathematical equation can become the image of "love's witness / running with its arms open all the way home." Award-winning poet Terrance Hayes says of the book: “Somers-Willett is a poet as passionate and inventive as the radical thinkers she counts among her muses. Quiver is a marvel of exacting speculation and song.” For more about the book, visit: http://www.susansw.com/books.htm. Susan B.A. Somers-Willett is the author of another book of poetry, Roam (2006), and a book of criticism, The Cultural Politics of Slam Poetry: Race, Identity, and the Performance of Popular Verse in America (2009). She currently teaches poetry and creative writing at the University of Texas at Austin. To order Quiver, please contact the publisher at (1-800-266-5842) or visit the University of Georgia Press website at: http://www.ugapress.uga.edu/0820333271.html. 6/7/2007 Somers-Willett Featured on Poetry Foundation Website’s Cover Story “Performing the Academy” FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Somers-Willett addresses issues such as how slam poetry is influencing the academy, what slam and the academy can learn from each other, and other topics from her forthcoming scholarly book, The Cultural Politics of Slam Poetry (University of Michigan Press, 2008). Somers-Willett’s poetry is also featured on this week’s Poetry Foundation podcast, to be released June 11. Virginia Quarterly Review Announces Writing Awards FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Honoring the best writing to appear in its pages in the past year, the Virginia Quarterly Review today announced the winners of its annual writing prizes for 2006:
The Emily Clark Balch Prizes for short story and poetry were established in 1955. Past recipients include Wendell Berry, John Berryman, Hayden Carruth, Carolyn Forché, Donald Hall, Mary Oliver, and May Sarton. The Staige D. Blackford Prize for nonfiction, established in 2003, is named for the seventh editor of VQR who retired in 2003 after guiding the magazine for 28 years. Each prize includes a monetary award of $1,000. The Virginia Quarterly Review is an award-winning literary magazine published continuously since 1925 at the University of Virginia. Earlier this year, VQR was honored with two awards and six nominations for the prestigious National Magazine Awards. For more information about the awards, contact Kevin Morrissey (434-924-3675, k.morrissey @ virginia.edu) or visit the VQR website at http://www.vqronline.org. Somers-Willett Featured in November/December 2006 Poets & Writers Magazine FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Somers-Willett’s first book, Roam, was selected for the Crab Orchard Series Open Competition by Leslie Adrienne Miller and was published by Southern Illinois University Press in March 2006. In the article, Somers-Willett says of the period in which she submitted her book to publishers: “The wait, however frustrating or full of dark hours, proved a time of exploration and self-investigation.” She reveals in the feature that she sent her manuscript out to over a hundred book contests over a period of seven years. As a supplement to the story, Somers-Willett’s poem, “What the Doctors Forget to Tell You About Morphine,” appears on the Poets & Writers website: http://www.pw.org/mag/debutpoets2006excerpts.htm Somers-Willett is currently completing a new manuscript of poetry, ‘Quiver,’ about the science, mathematics, and evolution of love and beauty. She teaches as a visiting fellow at the Center for the Arts in Society at Carnegie Mellon University. Roam, Poems by Susan B.A. Somers-Willett, Now Available FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Roam, a book of poems by Susan B.A. Somers-Willett of Champaign, Illinois, has just been released by Southern Illinois University Press and is now available for order from the publisher (618-453-6633). The book was selected from among hundreds of entries for the 2005 Crab Orchard Series in Poetry Open Competition. The Crab Orchard Series in Poetry was established in 1998 to publish new and emerging poets. The series, which includes an open competition, a first book competition, and an editor’s selection, is a co-publishing venture between the literary journal Crab Orchard Review and Southern Illinois University Press. The judge for the 2005 open competition was poet Leslie Adrienne Miller. Somers-Willett received a $1500 honorarium for a reading a Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and publication of her book. Copies of Roam will also be available at the Associated Writing Programs Conference Bookfair in Austin, Texas, March 8-11. Somers-Willett will read from her book on Friday, March 10 as part of the conference. For more information about the AWP Conference events and upcoming readings, visit Somers-Willett’s website: http://www.susansw.com/events.htm Roam explores the loss of a parent to cancer and the resulting uprootedness that loss can create. Poet Naomi Shihab Nye says of the book: “There’s a breathtaking, sly intellect at work in the luscious poems of Roam. Susan B. A. Somers-Willett spins an elegant geography of vast terrains and intricate histories. Her poems make unexpected landings and linkages everywhere.” Susan B.A. Somers-Willett is also the recipient of the 2004 Ann Stanford Poetry Prize and the 2005 Robert Frost Foundation Poetry Award. She currently teaches at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Humanities. To order Roam, please contact the publisher at (618-453-6633)
or visit the Southern Illinois University Press website at: 10/29/2005 Somers-Willett named winner of 2006 Robert Frost Poetry Award FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Susan B.A. Somers-Willett of Champaign, Illinois has been named the recipient of the 2005 Robert Frost Foundation Poetry Award for her poem, "The Effect of Light on a Woman's Body." The award, given annually and now in its ninth year, is given to a poem of exceptional merit "written in the spirit of Robert Frost." Somers-Willett receives an invitation to read at the Annual Robert Frost Poetry Festival in Lawrence, Massachusetts and a $1,000 cash prize. "The Effect of Light on a Woman's Body" was written about one of Andrew Wyeth's infamous "Helga" paintings, Overflow. The Helga paintings have been critically noted for their mastery of the nude female form and their exceptional use of light and shadow. An audio link to the poem is currently available at the Frost Foundation website: http://www.frostfoundation.org Susan B.A. Somers-Willett is also the recipient of the 2004 Ann Stanford Poetry Prize and her first book, Roam, is forthcoming from the Crab Orchard Award Series in Poetry in March 2006. She currently teaches at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. |
