The Lyric Body

Since I’m a visually impaired person the images above are arranged without art. In general terms I think this is okay. My life as a writer has been informed by multiple rough hewn inelegancies–a word that Microsoft doesn’t want me to type. I am not cowed. My rough hewn stuff is around my neck and I wear it jauntily since that’s the way to wear it.    

I am home in Iowa City after a trip that took me first to Meramec Community College in St. Louis  where I read poetry and nonfiction and taught a class of terrific students. Then I traveled to Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, NY for a festival on disabilities and the arts. HWS (as they like to call themselves) has long published Seneca Review a top tier literary journal that was founded some forty years ago by my dear friend Jim Crenner who is now an emeritus professor at the colleges. As the photo above suggests, Geneva, NY is a lovely place in spring. The campus at HWS is among the most beautiful in the nation. More lovely was the fact that we were there to honor April as disability awareness month and to talk about the latest issue of Seneca Review which is devoted to writing about disabilities and/or bodies of difference. I served as a guest editor for the magaizne along with Ralph Savarese (pictured above) and we’ve entitled the issue “The Lyric Body”. Also pictured above is the essayist, memoirist, and poet Susanne Antonetta who also goes by the name of Suzanne Paola. Susanne joined Ralph and yours truly on a panel discussing the power of disability and imagination to shape literary work that exemplifies rich and atypical inventiveness. We also taught a poetry writing class together.

This latest issue of Seneca Review contains extraordinary work from writers as diverse as Gregory Orr, Mark Doty, Adrienne Rich, Jim Ferris, Laurie Clements Lambeth, Rafael Campo, and many more. It’s also a feast for the eye as it contains brilliant artwork by artists with disabilities. Get yourself a copy!

We are off now to walk our beloved dog who has been in many airplanes and fair wondrously patient withal.

S.K.     

Author: skuusisto

Poet, Essayist, Blogger, Journalist, Memoirist, Disability Rights Advocate, Public Speaker, Professor, Syracuse University View all posts by skuusisto