Famous Poet Recites Poetry Delights

By Amanda Schreck
SC Staff Writer

On April 16 from 4:00 to 6:30 PM, award-winning poet Daisy Fried will recite her poetry in Beers Lecture Hall.

Fried has received the Guggenheim, Hodder and Pew Fellowships for her poetry, as well as the Pushcart Prize and the Cohen Award from “Ploughsares.”

Her first book of poetry, “She Didn’t Mean to Do It,” was published in 2000. “My Brother is Getting Arrested Again” was published in 2006, and her most recent publication, “Women’s Poetry: Poems and Advice” hit the shelves in 2013.

Fried also writes reviews for “The New York Times” and “Library Journal,” and she also writes essays for the Poetry Foundation and “Poetry Magazine,” among many other publications.

Some of her recent poems were published in the London Review of Books, The Nation, The New Republic, Poetry, The Threepenny Review, and one of her poems also appears in “Best American Poetry 2013.”

ESU English professor Richard Madigan brings a nationally recognized poet to read every spring semester. Madigan confessed she contacted Fried in a very unique way.

He said, “I did contact her via Twitter — she has a very active and engaging Twitter feed.” So if it weren’t for outreach through social media, Fried might not be coming to our campus.

This year’s poetry event is co-funded by ESU’s literary magazine “Calliope,” the Department of English, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Writing Studio, the ESU Women’s Center, and the Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity.

Madigan said that Fried is an outstanding poet who “has published three books of poetry with the University of Pittsburgh Press, and is one of the leading poets of her generation — an outstanding and original voice. Her poems are tough, comic, biting, very witty, incredibly smart, and quite accessible.”

English professor Jan Selving also chimed in about Fried’s successful and unique writing.

She said, “Fried has her own voice, her own ways of using language which are razor sharp. She has a wonderfully life-affirming wit and sense of the absurd.”

Selving thinks students can learn from Fried, who can inspire students in their writing.

She said, “I would love it if the reading sparked creativity — or just ignited a spark. I want Fried’s work to reach students so that they feel connected to language — to a world of art and literature they might not have been exposed to before.”

Selving believes literature can grasp the hearts of many students across varying disciplines.

She said, “Poetry can reach anyone — not just English majors. It doesn’t have borders. Readings reach across disciplines because writers are reading poems about their experience, about social commentary, and about universal human concerns. These things aren’t confined to specific academic disciplines.”

For more information about Fried, visit daisyfried.weebly.com and read some of her work on poetryfoundation.org.

Email Amanda at:
aschreck@live.esu.edu