Alison Hawthorne Deming interviews Jennifer Michael Hecht
Jennifer and Alison met for conversation at the AWP conference in New York City last month amidst the din of 8,000 writers.

AHD: I love the idea of "the arts of sudden knowledge" that you describe--poetry, painting, Zen, jokes. When did you become interested in the joke as a source of poetry and how did you go about doing your research for the book FUNNY?

JMH:  Funny came into being pretty organically.  I was writing a kind of a loose poem and the lines of a joke got written into it.  It struck me that the joke could easily be red as serious, even portentous.

Read the Interview | Related Event | In the Collection

Tribute to Jon Anderson by David Wojahn
Jon Anderson, nationally acclaimed poet and recently retired Professor in the English Department at the University of Arizona, died on Saturday October 20th at Northwest Hospital after several weeks of illness.

In 1976, Jon Anderson moved to Tucson, Arizona, where he taught in the University of Arizona Creative Writing Program for thirty years. "I love Tucson," he wrote, "everybody worth talking to looks like they're on food stamps, and during the summer something in the city explodes every two or three days." Anderson wrote seven books of poetry, including In Sepia, The Milky Way, and most recently Day Moon. Among his many awards are a Guggenheim Fellowship, two NEA Fellowships, and the Shelley Memorial Award for lifetime achievement from the Poetry Society of America.

Read the Tribute | Read HELPFUL HINTS Notes on Writing Poetry | Related Events (Feb 29/Mar1)

A Rigorous Geometry with Peter Turchi
What do fractals, board games, and Wile E. Coyote have to do with writing realism?

A story is a kind of map, and just as scientific maps are based on geometry, a story--even a "realistic" story--rests on an invisible bed of geometry. "A Rigorous Geometry" is about the underlying assumptions of realism, the tension between realism and all the other isms, form, shape, strategic omission, science and nature, knowledge and beauty. "A Rigorous Geometry" was presented February 19 at the Poetry Center and introduced by Shannon Cain. (Co-sponsored by UA Prose Series, Department of Geography, and Reading Series Sponsors Colleen and Jim Burns.)

Watch the Lecture | In the Collection

Conceptual Poetry and Its Others
Now Accepting Registrations

Conceptual art describes artwork that is intellectually rather than aesthetically conceived or realized. Early 20th C. writers (e.g. James Joyce and Gertrude Stein) paved the way for conceptual poetry, which began in earnest in 1960 with “Oulipo” (from Ouvroir de littérature potentielle, or "workshop of potential literature"), in which writing constraints drive the form or content of a literary work. This tradition continues to manifest in poetry today.  "Is such “non-expressivist” poetry too extreme?" asks Keynote Speaker Marjorie Perloff. Conceptual Poetry and Its Others brings together a variety of leading poets to debate the issue.

Read about the Symposium | In the Collection

Cameron Conaway
He knows how the caged word roars. . .

Cameron Conaway, the Poetry Center's High School Poet-in-Residence, is a study in seeming contradictions. He's got a background in Criminal Justice, is a mixed martial arts (i.e. cage) fighter, was nominated for an American College Theatre Festival award for his role as Jason in "Medea," and has received two Richard Russo Awards in Creative Writing and Literary Criticism. Cameron is a literacy volunteer tutor, a reader for elderly communities, and just this past Saturday impersonated a lion to impress upon children the power of voice at Poetry Joeys. He can most regularly be found teaching poetry in classes at Desert View and Catalina Magnet High Schools.

Read Tucson Weekly Q&A with Cameron | Download Cameron's HS Lesson Plans | Read a Conaway poem

Volunteer Spotlight: An Interview With Lisa Ciccarello
by intern Debby Jo Blank

Lisa Ciccarello is a recent graduate of the University of Arizona's Creative Writing MFA Program. She volunteers at the Poetry Center's Reception Desk two days a week. She is also working on a poetry manuscript in response to a book of "remedies" written in the early 1800s.

Read the Interview | How to Volunteer | In the Collection

Maria Elena Wakamatsu: This Year's Mary Ann Campau Fellow

Maria Elena Wakamatsu is among those poets dedicated to affirming the perilously beautiful complexity at the core of our human family. In the tradition of Mary Ann Campau, Wakamatsu is a teacher-poet who has inspired and helped countless students and fellow poets in Tucson in order that their voices be heard.” --William Pitt Root and Pamela Uschuk, judges

Read the Tucson Citizen Article | About Wakamatsu | About the Fellowship