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Remembering Claudia Emerson
captured April 2, 2016

On April 2, 2016, panelists Wyatt Prunty, Jill McCorkle, and Kathleen Graber led a reading in remembrance of poet Claudia Emerson as a part of the 2016 Association of Writers & Writing Programs Conference, which took place in Los Angeles. The presentation was moderated by Emilia Phillips.

Readers were invited to participate by sharing a memory of Emerson and then reading one of her poems. Many readers focused their attention on her two posthumous books: The Opposite House (Louisiana State University Press, 2015) and Impossible Bottle (Louisiana State University Press, 2015).

The event was organized by Blackbird senior editor Mary Flinn.

Panelists
Emilia Phillips is the author of two poetry collections from the University of Akron Press, Signaletics (2013) and Groundspeed (2016).

Kathleen Graber’s second collection, The Eternal City: Poems (Princeton University Press, 2010), was a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award.

Jill McCorkle is the author of five novels and four short story collections; the newest of which is the novel Life After Life (Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2013).

Wyatt Prunty is the author of nine poetry collections, including his newest book Couldn’t Prove, Had to Promise: Poems (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015).

Featured Readers
Sandra Beasley’s newest poetry collection is Count the Waves (W.W. Norton, 2015), and her collection I Was the Jukebox (W.W. Norton, 2010) won the Barnard Women Poets Prize.

Mary Katherine Calloway is the director of Louisiana State University Press.

Erica Dawson’s newest poetry collection, The Small Blades Hurt (Measure Press, 2014), won the 2016 Poet’s Prize from the West Chester University Poetry Center.

Mark Jarman is the author of eight poetry collections; the newest of which is Bone Fires: New and Selected Poems (Sarabande Books, 2011).

T.J. Jarrett’s second poetry collection, Zion (Southern Illinois University Press, 2013), won the 2013 Crab Orchard Open Competition.

Christie Maurer received her BA from the University of Houston and her MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University.

James Davis May is the author of the poetry collection Unquiet Things (Louisiana State University Press, 2016).

Adam Vines is the author of two poetry collections, The Coal Life (University of Arkansas Press, 2012) and According to Discretion (Unicorn Press, 2015).

Additional Audience Readers
Patience Armstrong, Chelsea Krieg, Catherine Staples, and Will Wells.  

   Contributor’s notes: Claudia Emerson

   Claudia Emerson Reading Loop