Hazen Discusses the Comforts of Poetry in Uncertain Times
In a guest post on The Bookworm, Elizabeth Hazen, author of "Girls Like Us," discusses the power of reading and writing poetry in uncertain times.
In a guest post for the small book review blog, The Bookworm, Elizabeth Hazen discusses the role poetry occupies in her life during uncertain times as with the 2016 inauguration and #MeToo movement, and now the COVID 19 epidemic. She also explains her relationship to her new collection Girls Like Us.
While in her first collection, Chaos Theories, she used "a filter through which to explore my subjects allow[ing her] the distance to be objective," in Girls Like Us Hazen "[didn't' allow [herself] quite as much distance from the subject," adding that:
"After the public discourse about sexual assault and misogyny blew up with Trump’s inauguration and with the onset of #MeToo, many old hurts resurfaced for me, as they did for so many women I know. I had to write through all of this and realized that many poems I had been working on were really about what it is to be a woman in world that expects us to be so many contradictory things. The process of writing these poems, though painful at times, was incredibly empowering, and it is my hope that readers will share in that sense of empowerment."
Read the full blog post HERE
And don't forget, EVERY. SINGLE. BOOK. in the ASP catalog is half-price through the month of may!
Featured Poetry: “Winter Funeral” by Elizabeth Hazen
Fully embracing what the lyric mode does best, Hazen provides the readers with brief, intense poems that preserve a suspended moment in time, attempting to record the thought processes and emotions of the speaker much like tree rings reveal drought, heat, and age. With astonishing clarity and concision, Hazen explores the mysteries of our realities—which are ultimately beholden to entropy.
Grace Cavalieri on the Kojo Nnamdi Show Jan 23rd
Recently Governor Larry Hogan announced that Grace Cavlieri, poet, playwright, and long time host of NPR’s The Poet and The Poem, would become Maryland’s next Poet Laureate, succeeding the great Stanley Plumly. Now that she has been inaugurated, one of her first stops is The Kojo Nnamdi show. Kojo Nnamdi has been hosting his show on WAMU for 20 years, so he and Grace are kindred spirits in that regard–Grace has hosted The Poet and The Poem for over 40 years.
A Short Thought on Grace’s Interview with Jorie Graham (by Writer, Nin Andrews)
Nin Andrews is a poet. Most recently of Miss August which is out now from the awesome Cavankerry Press and most notably of the collection, Why God is a Woman. Nin Andrews is also a fan of Grace Cavalieri’s interview with Jorie Graham which she recently extolled over on ITN.