By Stella Feenstra, Digital Social Media & Advertising Editor
On Tuesday, Mar. 17, students and faculty gathered in Isaacs Auditorium for the final installment of the Seavey Reading Series, where the Writer’s Institute hosted poet and nonfiction author, Alan Gilbert.
The evening opened with a warm welcome from Dr. Catherine Dent, director of the Writer’s Institute. Dent read an excerpt of James Joyce’s Ulysses, a piece that she paralleled to the nature of Gilbert’s work.
Dent extended her gratitude to the audience, students, and faculty involved in making this event possible. She also made a special shoutout to the owner of local bookstore, D.J. Ernst Books. DJ “Homer” Ernst often worked closely with Susquehanna students and recently retired after five decades of business.
Dent then encouraged the audience to “look forward to the road ahead”, before introducing student, Ell Virgilio.
Virgilio is a current senior with majors in Creative Writing and English- Publishing & Editing, and minors in French Studies and Honors. Dent described Virgilio as a “talented poet”, involved in a plethora of campus publications and organizations.
Virgilio spoke of their experiences with Gilbert’s poetry collection, The Treatment of Monuments, pointing out Gilbert’s talent for “the art of linking things”. In reference to Gilbert’s more recent work, The Everyday Life of Design, Virgilio described how the “kaleidoscopic work…embraces everyday disasters”, but in the end “there’s an uninvited guest called hope”.
When Gilbert took the stage, he stated that this was “one of the best introductions” he had ever received.
Before beginning his reading, he touched on his life in writing spaces. Gilbert taught in several institutions, including Sarah Lawrence College, Cooper Union, and the Naropa University Summer Writing Program. He currently works as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Columbia University School of the Arts.
He has authored many collections of poetry, including two versions of The Everyday Life of Design, The Treatment of Monuments, and Late in the Antenna Fields. He is also the author of a collection of essays titled Another Future: Poetry and Art in a Postmodern Twilight.
Gilbert has won various awards for his writing. Most recently, he was the recipient of the 2019 Creative Capital, Andy Warhol Foundations Writers Grant.
Taking into consideration the diverse writing styles of the audience, Gilbert chose to read pieces across both the poetry and nonfiction genres.
From The Everyday Life and Design, an ongoing epic poem, Gilbert read a variety of works, including “Time Capsule”, “A New Hope”, “Naming the Constellations”, “Fight or Flight” and others.
Gilbert then shifted to his nonfiction piece about Claude Cahun, a French photographer widely known for her anti-Nazi propaganda during WWII. While reading, Gilbert presented quotes and photography from Cahun’s autobiography Aveux mon Avenus, representing the “rainbow of values” that Cahun stated she fought for.
Gilbert closed the reading with a recent poem “Butterfly Effect”, before moving into a Q&A session.
Students and staff raised questions about Gilbert’s thoughts on the “modern epic”, his writing style, and even his 70s yacht rock preferences. Following the reading, the audience had a chance to attend a book signing with Gilbert.
While everyone awaits the next Seavey Reading Series, the Writer’s Institute encourages students to fill out their Student Choice Reader survey, which will allow students to provide input on who they would like to see at next year’s series. The survey can be found on flyers posted around campus.