For three summers running, a group of local poetry afficionados have met every two-to-three weeks to discuss a different poetry collection, led by WKU English professor Dr. Tom Hunley. On Wednesday, July 17, the group had the great pleasure of meeting via Zoom with Diane Seuss, who answered questions about Modern Poetry, the follow-up to her 2022 Pulitzer Prize-winning collection, Frank: Sonnets. Fourteen people were in attendance, among them WKU faculty, MFA students, current English majors, and others from the local poetry community. Here are a few reactions to Seuss’s visit:
• “The evening was a once in a lifetime opportunity. This poetry club is a wonderful place for like-minded individuals to discuss everything from larger themes to specific devices, and being able to talk to Diane herself elevated the experience. She was kind, supportive, and such a pleasure to speak with. My main takeaway, and something that Diane herself spoke of often, is that poetry is not dead, nowhere near it in fact, and will continue to be an important part of humanity.” – Heather Neidlinger, second year WKU MFA student
• “Diane said something like ‘I’m wary for the poet who gets their gig and that’s it’. I found this really interesting because I have definitely read collections that fall flat in the second half because the poet relied too heavily on a specific bag of tricks or techniques.” – Jarek Jarvis, WKU Creative Writing MFA (2024)
• “I found her advice about not limiting yourself to one be one type of poet to be inspiring and gave me a greater curiosity to explore forms and structures that I have not yet explored.” – Susanna Skelton, third year WKU MFA student
• “The down-to-earth nature of her poems made me feel like I was missing something at times, but talking to her made me realize that they were meant to create a shared experience.” – Brooke Gross, incoming WKU MFA student (and WKU Librarian)
• “My takeaway overall is that it’s okay, even necessary, for women to be forthright and brutally honest. Some things in the dark are painful, even harrowing, but they need to be brought out into the light. She has definitely inspired me to break out of my genteel southern-girl sense of propriety in the way I treat intimate and emotionally difficult content.” – Martha Zettle, local poet, former Poetry Editor of The Greensboro Review
This summer, the group read five published collections plus one MFA thesis. If you’re interested in attending meetings next summer, contact Dr. Tom C. Hunley at tom.hunley@wku.edu.
