By Lily Gannon, Staff Writer
The Seavey Reading series opened in a joint reading by Sarah Rose Nordgren and assistant professor of English and creative writing, Matthew Neill Null on Sept.18 in Isaacs Auditorium.
The reading was hosted by Susquehanna’s Writers Institute. Nordgren and Null included both published and current drafts of literature they have worked on.
Null, who is also a published novelist, read a passage from his current project “How Much Water Does a Man Need?”
He describes his novel as set in the 1960s during the time of the Cold War, with the focus on an “ex-coalminer who discovers political corruption and must decide whether or not to become a whistleblower.”
“The characters are involved in the Cold War tension between Marxists and liberals, both in America and abroad,” Null said.
Null, originally from West Virginia, began teaching fiction at Susquehanna this fall.
He is the author of one novel, “Honey from the Lion,” and a short story collection titled “Alleghany Front.” He has also been published in American Short Fiction, Ploughshares, Harvard Review and The Best American Mystery Stories.
Null has also been the recipient of the Joseph Brodsky Rome Prize, the Mary McCarthy Prize, the O. Henry Award and the Michener-Copernicus Society of America Award.
Nordgren, a published author and doctoral candidate in poetry with a certificate in women’s, gender and sexuality studies from the University of Cincinnati, read 10 of her published poems.
From her poetry book “Darwin’s Mother,” Nordgren read “Material,” “Mitochondrial Eve,” “Life Without a Spine,”“Reservoir” and “Cicada and Goddesses.”
“We know so much about Charles Darwin. I was in some way speaking about Charles and Susanna Darwin as being kind of examples of the history of women and also this other type of creation,” Nordgren said. “She had several other children and was religious. I was thinking about different types of creation that mothers do and that science does.”
“Darwin’s Mother…is my attempt to marry science with magic,”Nordgren said.“The book is called Darwin’s mother because I became interested in Charles Darwin’s mother…no one seems to ever write about her.”
Nordgren also read a few other poems including “Making a Baby,” “Territory,” “Wild Animals” and “Blessings.”
In addition to “Darwin’s Mother,” Nordgren, has published another book of poetry titled “Best Bones,” for which she received the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize.
Nordgren has been the recipient of two winter fellowships from the Rine Arts Work Center in Provincetown and an Individual Excellence Award from the Ohio Arts Council.
She is also in collaboration with Kathleen Kelley, a dance choreographer and media artist, whom she works with to create performance pieces for their project Smart Snow.
