Last month I wrote about local poets who are extending their reach across our state and beyond; this month the big news is that two award-winning poets from out of state are coming here on a tour promoting their new books. Adrian Blevins of Maine, recent winner of the Wilder Prize, and Travis Mossotti of Missouri, winner of the 2018 Miller Williams Prize, are kicking off a four-state, five-stop tour at Poetry in the Boro at Murfreesboro Little Theatre on Sunday, Sept. 23.
The tour, dubbed “Run Amok Americana,” blends the poets’ latest book titles: Blevins’ Appalachians Run Amok and Mossotti’s Narcissus Americana.
Adrian Blevins’ additional poetry publications include Live From the Homesick Jamboree, The Brass Girl Brouhaha and two chapbooks. She is also the co-editor of Walk Till the Dogs Get Mean: Meditations on the Forbidden from Contemporary Appalachia. She is the recipient of many awards, including the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award.
Travis Mossotti’s third book of poetry, Narcissus Americana, was selected by former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins for the Miller Williams Prize. Mossotti is also author of two chapbooks and two other full-length collections, About the Dead and Field Study. He serves as Poet-in-Residence at the Endangered Wolf Center in St. Louis and teaches at Webster University.
The featured poets go on at 7 p.m., with an hour of open mic to follow. Doors open and open mic sign ups begin at 6:30 p.m. Find full details about this free event, including this month’s writing challenge, on the Poetry in the Boro Facebook page.
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Also in September:
Wednesday, Sept. 5, the Barnes & Noble book club will meet at 6 p.m. to discuss The Darkest Time of Night, a suspense novel that’s receiving praise from NPR, People Magazine and others. Author Jeremy Finley, known to many in the region for his investigative journalism, plans to be in attendance.
Friday evening, Sept. 7, Christopher Williams’ entertainment event “Under 1 Roof” will be held at The Warehouse in Murfreesboro. Combining poetry, music, and comedy, tickets are on sale for $10 online or $15 at the door. A cash bar will be available. Find more details on Facebook.
Saturday, Sept. 15, MTSU Write hosts its annual day-long conference for writers of all genres. Internationally acclaimed author Ruta Sepetys will be the keynote speaker. Read by students and adults worldwide, Sepetys’ novels Between Shades of Gray and Out of the Easy are New York Times bestsellers. Her latest novel, Salt to the Sea, is a #1 New York Times bestseller and winner of the Carnegie Medal. Other presenters will include Sybil Baker, Sandy Coomer, John Goslee, Marcus Jackson, Corabel Shofner, Elyzabeth Gregory Wilder and more, offering sessions on a wide variety of topics and genres. Registration for the day is $60, with discounts available to MTSU faculty, students, and former affiliates of MTSU Write. See mtsu.edu/write for more info.
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“Foreclosure”
by Travis Mossotti
from Narcissus Americana. (Copyright 2018 by The University of Arkansas Press. Reproduced with the permission of the University of Arkansas Press, uapress.com)
When the bank reclaimed
the house in which I grew up,
my parents weren’t ashamed,
didn’t board themselves up
inside and wait for the cops.
They were docile as mops
loaded last onto the truck,
their acumen won from a string
of luck—they called it downsizing,
used an inheritance to purchase
another family’s foreclosed home.
My father dug bulbs from loam
to replant the new place,
and they bloomed in the spring
with beautiful indifference.
