May Book Club

Sat, 18 Feb 2012 13:39:32 -0500

Start: 05/17/2012 - 7:00pm

End: 05/17/2012 - 7:00pm

In the 1970s, Larry Ott and Silas "32" Jones were boyhood pals in a small town in rural Mississippi. Their worlds were as different as night and day: Larry was the child of lower-middle-class white parents, and Silas, the son of a poor, black single mother. But then Larry took a girl to a drive-in movie and she was never seen or heard from again. He never confessed . . . and was never charged.

More than twenty years have passed. Larry lives a solitary, shunned existence, never able to rise above the whispers of suspicion. Silas has become the town constable. And now another girl has disappeared, forcing two men who once called each other "friend" to confront a past
they've buried for decades.

Meet the Faces Behind A Face to Meet the Faces Anthology Reading

Thu, 10 May 2012 20:36:25 -0400

Start: 05/23/2012 - 7:30pm

End: 05/23/2012 - 7:30pm

Persona has a wide-ranging and far-reaching role in the literary tradition. Early in its history, poetry operated as an oral chronicle of important cultural and historical events, a way of both “knowing” and “remembering,” of handing down stories to future generations. The storyteller’s point of view was of witness or scribe, and poems were very rarely written in the first-person narrative.

Utilizing personae as both poetic alter ego and as a foil to their own narrative perspectives, modern poets retold the story. T. S. Eliot’s “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” from which this anthology takes its title, is an excellent example of persona as alter ego, allowing the poet to voice the unspeakable and think the unthinkable without direct ownership, consequence, or reproach. In this way, the idea of “hiding behind a mask” can be utterly revealing and liberating.

The poems in this anthology represent the intersection of tradition and possibility. The poets range in age and accolade and draw their inspiration from sources that are as disparate as the ways in which information is disseminated in our multimedia world. From ancient mythology to popular culture, from fairy tales to tabloids, the voices in these poems address a wide range of issues that are historical, contemporary, and ultimately timeless.

Stacey Lynn Brown received her MFA in Poetry from The University of Oregon. A poet, playwright, and essayist, she is the author of the book-length poem Cradle Song, which was published by C&R Press in 2009. She is an Assistant Professor of English and Creative Writing at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.

Join co-editor Stacey Lynn Brown, Dan Albergotti,
Nagueyalti Warren, Adam Vines, L. Lamar Wilson, and Collin Kelley for a very special reading.

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May Book Club

Meet the Faces Behind A Face to Meet the Faces Anthology Reading