|
|
Poet Larissa Szporluk nets NEA fellowship BOWLING GREEN, O. -- Forces of nature, bits of fable, mythic voices-all are elements of the poetry of Larissa Szporluk. Her
work has been recognized with a $20,000 literature fellowship in poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts.
That news was greeted happily by Bowling Green State University Creative Writing Program Director Wendell Mayo, who said the
department now is in the unusual position of being "four for four." All of BGSU's creative writing faculty have received an
NEA fellowship within the last three years.
An assistant professor of English and creative writing, Szporluk will use the NEA funds to support work on her latest book
of poetry, the inspiration for which came from a landmark mountain in Italy known as Monte Circeo. Named after the mythic
witch-goddess Circe, the mountain "looks like a fallen head looking up at the sky. It's very mysterious and beautiful," the
poet explained.
Szporluk has both regarded and climbed the mountain, which on one side is covered with olive trees and wildflowers and, on
the other side, facing the sea, treacherous steep rocks.
The poems in this as-yet unnamed collection are "more experimental. I'm doing things I've never done before, but I'm encouraged
and inspired by the work I've just finished,' she said.
That work, "Inside the Dog-Fish," will be published in September by Alice James Books. Szporluk describes the book as a "culmination
of everything I've learned. It combines technical skills with some far-sighted projects. I feel very good about it." The work
is infused with intimations of a force-the wind, or a mysterious energy-that stirs even inanimate objects into life. Although
she gives more attention to narrative in "Inside the Dog-Fish" than in her previous work, the language itself is still the
most essential element of the poems, Szporluk said.
Szporluk's second book of poetry, "Isolato," published in 2000 by University of Iowa Press, received the Iowa Poetry Prize,
and her first book, "Dark Sky Question," published in 1998 by Beacon Press, was the winner of the Barnard New Women Poets
Prize.
(Posted March 13, 2003 )
|
|
