|
In the Spring of 2005, my chapbook manuscript entitled Cloud Tablets was chosen as a winner in the Wick Poetry Center Chapbook Competition. Maggie Anderson, editor of the chapbook series, made it a priority to merge my vision as an artist with the vision of the Wick Poetry Center. It was, in short, one of the best experiences of my life as a writer, but it didn’t stop there. At the 2006 AWP conference in Austin, TX, I participated in a quite successful book-signing at the Wick Poetry Center’s bookfair booth. About a year later, during my visit to the Wick Poetry Center and the campus of Kent State University, I was very impressed at the Wick Center’s efforts to connect their visiting authors with the student community. Myself and Benjamin Scott Grossberg (another Wick Chapbook winner) visited two Creative Writing classrooms and found the students prepared to ask us questions about our work. There was an impressive turnout from both the student and local communities for our reading and it was clear to me that while the Wick Poetry Center is dedicated to selecting and publishing high-quality work, it is equally dedicated to successfully promoting its poets to the public. As winner of the student-focused leg of the competition, I felt a giddy sense of “Who me?” throughout the visit. Alongside their publishing efforts, the Wick Poetry Center is also committed to community outreach. Several years before winning the chapbook award, I participated in Wick’s outreach program by visiting local third grade classrooms and teaching the students about poetry. This experience played a pivotal role in my development as a poet and teacher, but more importantly it helped me (and still helps, to this very day) to become a better human being. I’ve felt incredibly lucky in the last few years to find a wide audience for my work. I published my first full length collection of poems in 2007, have a second due out in 2009, and have more projects in the works. In the process I’ve met many kind people, made many good friends, and have learned more than I ever expected. Over the course of a decade, poetry has steadily moved closer to the center of my life, and it all started with the Wick Poetry Center.
|