Over a hundred people packed into GLC 100E on Monday, April 28 to listen to poetry. The ACTC spring visiting author, Paisley Rekdal, read  her poetry as well as told stories and answered several questions.

Every year, Hamline’s Creative Writing department hosts two writers: one in the fall semester and another in the spring semester who also visits the other ACTC schools. Last semester, writer Ben Percy spoke and spent time on campus and with BFA and MFA students. Mary Rockcastle, the Director of The Creative Writing Programs, explained the selection process via email.

“There are a number of criteria the faculty use in selecting writers to invite. (1) writers faculty have taught or assigned in class, (2) writers known to be good teachers/presenters, (3) writers the faculty think the students will engage with, whose work they like,” Rockcastle wrote.

The school rotates genres of the writer. “This year, we invited a CWP visiting writer in fiction (Ben Percy) in the fall so [we] invited a poet (Paisley) in the spring. Last spring we’d invited Brenda Miller in [creative nonfiction], so it was time for a poet,” Rockcastle wrote.

During the week in residence, the writer participates in a series of events and activities. The “visiting writer visits a select number of undergraduate creative writing and English classes,” Rockcastle wrote. “We do an evening public reading to which all of the ACTC schools are invited. We schedule Q & A sessions for students to talk with the visiting writer. There are lunches and dinners with students and/or faculty.”

Rekdal spoke in the melodic cadence of someone who is familiar in reading their own poetry. She read 11 poems of varying lengths, styles and topics. The first poem, “Vessels” was about pearl harvesting Rekdal witnessed in Taiwan. She read two sonnets about Mae West, concluding the poems in the voice of the iconic actress.

“Some of you know Mae West,” Rekdal explained. “And some of you don’t. For those of you who don’t you should go home and flagellate yourself.”

The last poem was the first from her collection “Animal Eye.” Titled “Why some girls love horses,” the subject was nostalgic and melancholy. After nearly an hour of reading her work, Rekdal opened the floor to questions.

Senior Shane Blegin said that her book “Intimate” was “profoundly excellent” and then asked about the process of writing. The book includes a combination of Edward Curtis’s photographs of Native Americans and poetry inspired by the photos.

“I thought I would write some poems in response to those photographs,” Rekdal responded.

The book is a hybrid of personal essay, historical documentary and poetry. Basically, it is a combination of all three main genres taught at Hamline. “It took about five years,” Rekdal said.

Other questions regarded further education such as a MFA or PhD, which she teaches at the University of Utah, and living in a more conservative state.

“There’s much to be said about being the aggressive minority,” Rekdal said. “It makes you fight harder for what you think is the invisible.”

“Intimate” and “Animal Eye” are both available online and in bookstores.

Rockcastle added, “Next fall we’re hosting Jamaal May, a wonderful poet and our ACTC writer in the spring will be fiction writer Kevin Moffatt.”