Indiana Poet Laureate George Kalamaras shared thoughts with students on how to effectively write and develop poetry as part of the Visiting Writers Series.
On Wednesday, Oct. 15, poet Kalamaras visited Bradley as a part of the Visiting Writers Series. He read selections from his published poetry collection and offered a preview from his upcoming collection, “The Hermit’s Way of Being Human,” to be released in 2015.
Kalamaras is a professor at both Indiana University and Purdue University. He also serves as Indiana’s poet laureate and has written 13 volumes of poetry, as well as a critical study of contemporary poetics.
The Visiting Writers Series has been coordinated by Dr. Kevin Stein for the past 31 years, started during his first year as a Bradley professor in 1984.
“[Kalamaras’s visit] offers students both nuts and bolts instruction in the craft of poetry and a lively artistic performance,” Stein said. “It’s important to remember poetry’s oral roots. In fact, in ancient Rome one ‘published’ one’s poem by reciting it aloud in public before a group.”
The series is a particularly good resource for the student editors of Bradley’s literary arts magazine Broadside.
“Broadside editors will have the chance to meet, converse with and ask questions of a practicing poet,” Stein said. “They’ll gain better sense of the literary marketplace and the mechanics of contemporary publishing in America.”
Junior English major Lauren Galloway said she enjoyed the event.
“I hadn’t heard of the Visiting Writers Series before, but it was really cool to get to meet people succeeding in my field,” Galloway said. “I look forward to future writers in the series.”
