Cleveland State University’s Poetry Center invited poets Farid Matuk and Anne Lesley Selcer to read Feb. 7 for the Lighthouse Reading Series in the Galleries at CSU.
Farid Matuk is the author of “This Isa Nice Neighborhood” and “The Real Horse.” He lives in Tucson where he teaches in the MFA program at the University of Arizona and is on the editorial team of “Fence,” the print and online literary publication.
Anne Lesley Selcer is the winner of the Cleveland State Poetry Center’s 2018 First Book Poetry Competition for her work of “Sun Cycle,” as well as a winner of the Gazing Grain Press Award for her essay collection ”Blank Sign Book” and “from A Book of Poems on Beauty.”
The Poetry Center invited both poets to give students and local residents the opportunity to listen to recent published works and give those in attendance a chance to talk to the poets.
Hilary Plum, MFA, associate director of the Cleveland State University’s Poetry Center, said that the Poetry Center invites writers whose work they admire, and which excited them to teach in their classes.
“As the series organizer, I like to invite writers whose work I’ve recently been thrilled to discover, and which covers a wide range of the contemporary literary landscape,” Plum said. “That is, writers whose work is pretty different from one another, but which might make for exciting combinations, providing a surprising, inspiring, meaningful view onto literature today.”
Plum also said that she talks to other creative writing faculty and students about new books they’ve loved and people they’d be excited to hear read and then incorporate their ideas.
At the Lighthouse Reading, each poet took a turn behind the stand, the art of local artists serving as a backdrop as they read. The gallery had soft light, filled with landscape portraits of skies, forests and lakes.
Matuk read from his latest series “Redolent,” which is a work of poems in collaboration with visual artist Nancy Friedmann-Sanchez. He had projections of different artwork called “Mopa Mopa”, native South American phenolic resin art, that he had paired with his poetry.
Selcer read from “Sun Cycle,” using an audio clip of opera singing as a prop during her reading at the end of the program.
Both poets spoke with students following the readings, as well as signing autographs and posing for pictures.
“My hope is that the series offers both formal and informal moments for readers and writers to meet, talk and make a literary space and sense of happening together,” Plum said. “I hope the series lets us experience ambitious new literature through the voice of the author and learn how these writers approach their work and the diverse types of questions, projects, artistic practices and cultural conversations they are taking on.”