Presenters: Features

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POETRY
Sponsored by the Deadwood Public Library

Marilyn Chin Returns!

A list of all of Marilyn Chin’s honors and awards would leave lit tle space for anything else; a quicksummation will have to do. She’s the recipient of two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. She’s been awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to Taiwan, has collected a number of Pushcart Prizes, received a Stegner Fellowship, the PEN/Josephine Miles Award, and the Paterson Prize.

Chin has an M.F.A. from the University of Iowa and is a professor of poetry at San Diego State University for the school’s M.F.A. program in creative writing. She has taught at workshops worldwide, and is known for her translation work, including Chinese poet Ai Qing and Gozu Yoshimasu (Japan).

Chin has two books being published just in time for this year’s festival. A revised edition of her poetry collection The Phoenix Gone, The Terrace Empty will be published by Milkweed. One reviewer called the original edition “unsentimentally courageous.” Chin’s debut novel, Revenge of the Mooncake Vixen, is being released just days before the festival. Chin’s other volumes of poetry are Dwarf Bamboo and Rhapsody in Plain Yellow.

Chin’s poetry reflects her activist character and has stated that she believes it is important “that poetry make something happen.” She often writes about assimilation issues; she was born in Hong Kong and came to the U.S. as a child. In one of her most-quoted poems, “How I Got That Name: An Essay on Assimilation,” she examines how Mei Ling became Marilyn because of her father’s fascination with Marilyn Monroe.

Track Preview

The poetry track is rife with names sure to please any poetry taste. Publishers Weekly has bestowed a coveted starred review upon Wayne Miller’s Book of Props, calling the poet “one to watch” and describing the 2009 collection as “elegant” and noting that “transformations—from the everyday to the wondrous and/ or haunting—are everywhere” in this book.
Three award-winning South Dakota poets, David Allan Evans, Linda Hasselstrom, and Elizabeth Cook-Lynn will offer a fascinating look at Dakota poetry.

The poetry track would not be complete without readings. Melissa Kwasny will read from Reading Novalis in Montana. Jim Reese, Wayne Miller and David Allan Evans will read at afternoon sessions. Gary Westgard and Daniel Burow have studied spiritual matters for years. They will discuss their experiences in a co-presentation at the Deadwood Public Library.

In “Sound and Rhythm,” Ken Waldman, “Alaska’s Fiddling Poet,” will provide participants with a look at his dual passions and talents. Waldman will also perform at Festival Central during Saturday’s lunch break.

Quincy Troupe: Innovator at Large

Quincy Troupe comes to the festival after receiving the National Book award twice, and was California’s first Poet Laureate.

Troupe makes being prolific look easy. His award-winning poetry has appeared in Skulls Along the River, Transcircularities, Choruses, Avalanche, and Weather Reports. Publishers Weekly wrote Troupe “is an innovator of form and tone who shifts quickly from a lofty, elegiac mode into burlesque or smoky, jazzed-down pop phraseology.”

Troupe captures the legendary Miles Davis in two much-lauded works, Miles: The Autobiography and Miles and Me. He’s also written for children, including a picture book about basketball great Magic Johnson.

Troupe and Chris Gardner co-wrote Gardner ’s true rags to riches tale in The Pursuit of Happyness. In the movie version, Will Smith played Gardner.

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