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www.amleahy.com or leahy@chapman.edu
When Maggie Anderson contacted me with the news that Alberto Rios had chosen Constituents of Matter for the Wick Poetry Prize, I was incredibly excited. I had known some of the Wick chapbook authors, so I had a sense that the Wick Poetry Center was a good place for my work. I left for vacation the day Maggie and I talked on the phone, and I checked my e-mail at a coffee shop several times that week, just to make sure she'd asked me to call her.
Visiting the Wick Poetry Center and Kent State University Press was a wonderful experience. I was able to read my work to a large and appreciative audience, give a talk about the intersections of art and science, work with a group of earnest student writers in a weeklong workshop, and participate the Center's community in a variety of ways. Winning a Wick Poetry Prize is about a lot more than book publication.
More recently, I was one of the Wick poets who read at the AWP Conference in Chicago, as part of the Wick Poetry Center's anniversary celebration. I was proud to represent the good things that Wick does and happy to be able to share my work with others, including former and current students, fellow writers with whom I had studied at Knox College and in graduate school, and even the assistant manager from the Gap where I had worked while finishing my PhD and adjuncting (Holly Christensen is now a student in the NEOMFA, in which Kent State University participates). The folks at the Wick Poetry Center believe poetry matters. They rock!
I must admit also that the Wick Poetry Prize changed my career. When I won the first-book award, I already held a tenure-track position, so I was one of the lucky and hard-working poets. I taught not only creative writing, but also literature, women's studies, and composition, so I found it difficult to find enough time to keep writing poetry. The Wick Prize validated the effort I had made and encouraged me to rethink my career. Now, I hold a position at Chapman University, where I teach in the MFA and BFA programs. I have refocused my life so that I write more often, read more poetry, and teach what I know and care about most deeply. I am grateful.
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