VOICE Reading Series | Thursday | 7:30 p.m. | Krannert Art Museum
The questions are simple. The answers are honest/snarky/awesome/nervous/humble/cocky (as most prose tends to be). Read on for all the reasons you need to check out the U of I MFA Program’s VOICE reading this Thursday.
Max Somers
Where are you from?
Indiana. Wait, do you mean philosophically? In that case, Indiana.
Anything you really love or really hate about Champaign?
Michael Van Walleghen has a great about poem about Illinois called, “Honeymoon of the Muse”. In it he says this: “…Illinois goes on forever/ with detours through Homer,/ Sadorus, Villa Grove…/ towns nestled at the foot/ of nothing-and therefore/ precarious somehow, fitfully/ alpine, as if the sky itself/ might suddenly collapse/ and wipe them out entirely.” How better to describe everything loveable and loathsome about the Midwest.
If you could have dinner/drinks with any three writers, who’d they be?
Geez. Three? I’ll give you one. George Oppen. He has some great poems about cars. No writes about cars anymore. Why not? Where have all the manly men gone?
What’s the most unflattering comparison your work has ever drawn?
No one has really given my work that much thought. Gosh, is it that bad? I hope not.
How do you answer folks who ask you what you write about?
I don’t have a spiel yet, but I’m working on one. Tony Hoagland has a great line in one of his poems where he’s talking about punching someone in the face. It goes like this: “I’ll take the shortcut between the spirit and the flesh.” I’m thinking of stealing it. Boy, people will think I’m deep.
What should we be on the lookout for when you read for VOICE?
Who knows, right? Poetry…at an art museum. It’s bound to get wild.Eric Tanyavutti
Smile Politely: Where are you from?
I’m from the northwest suburbs of Chicago.
Anything you really love or really hate about Champaign?
One thing I really appreciate about Champaign is how diverse the town is. There’s no shortage of stuff to do.
If you could have dinner/drinks with any three writers, who’d they be?
I’d have dinner with Jhumpa Lahiri, Robert Olen Butler, and John Edgar Wideman.
What’s the most unflattering comparison your work has ever drawn?
Though I typically write about the Asian American experience, I’m not very fond of being told that I write about “Asians.” Like all writers, it’s about that, but it’s also much more than that.
How do you answer folks who ask you what you write about?
I tell them that I write about family and race, primarily.
What should we be on the lookout for when you read for VOICE?
Looking forward to reading this year, and hearing my peers’ work! Also, hopefully I’ll be much less nervous this time around.
Angie Hine
Where are you from?
Bartlett, Kansas.
Anything you really love or really hate about Champaign?
I’m pretty scared of the buses–where I come from, there’s no such thing as “public transportation.” So I dislike that parking costs so much.
If you could have dinner/drinks with any three writers, who’d they be?
I’m going to assume I can pick living and/or dead: Gabriel Garcia Marquez, William Faulkner, David Sedaris.
What’s the most unflattering comparison your work has ever drawn?
I know there have been moments in workshop when a classmate compared my work to something unfavorable, but I must have repressed the actual comparison.
How do you answer folks who ask you what you write about?
I usually say trees, though I think I’ve only written one poem about trees.
What should we be on the lookout for when you read for VOICE?
My nervous ticks: if I’m standing on one foot while I read, that’s just the manifestation of my nerves.