Creative
Writing faculty present poets and writers series
Chavez
and Thiel featured Sept. 26
By Carolyn
Gonzales
Lisa Chavez
and Diane Thiel, new to the English Departments Creative
Writing Program, kick off the Poets and Writers Reading Series
on Thursday, Sept. 26, at 7 p.m. at the Jonson Gallery.
Thiel,
poet and author of Echolocations, which received
the Nicholas Roerich Award from Story Line Press (2000), and
Writing Your Rhythm, joins the faculty after a year
on a Fulbright grant in Odessa, on the Black Sea.
One of
her major themes is the effect of war and trauma on children
and future generations. Her poem, The Minefield,
which deals with her fathers childhood in Germany, recounts
his seeing a friend blown up in a minefield and ends with the
ways in which he passed his experience to his children:
In
the way we still expect, years later and continents away,
that anything might explode at any time
and we would have to run on alone
with a vision like that
only seconds behind.
Ive
always loved the area from the landscape to the fascinating
layers of culture and history. The Creative Writing Program
has been heading in exciting new directions, which I look forward
to helping to shape. University of New Mexico also suits a particular
interest of mine translation. I grew up speaking several
languages, and much of my writing deals with issues of language
and cross-cultural experience, says Thiel. The poets
and writers series is a terrific way to bring a constant flow
of new energy into the program.
Chavez
is the author of, In an Angry Season and Destruction
Bay. She says, I was easy to entice to UNM because
I had long wanted to come here. I felt especially lucky to get
this job. While I have never lived in New Mexico myself, my
family has always lived in this area, so this is sort of homecoming
for me. I have no doubt the move will have a profound effect
on my writing and my lifeone of my projects is to connect
with my family here and to explore my roots here in New Mexico.
Much of my writing is based on the way people of various races,
cultures and ethnicities both clash and come together, and I
believe New Mexicos unique cultural mix will inspire me
to continue this sort of work.
Chavez
is excited to work with UNMs cultural mix of students.
My heritage as a person of mixed Latina/Native American/Anglo
background has profoundly influenced my writing. I hope to be
able to work with students from diverse backgrounds and help
them explore their own experiences and traditions, she
says.
As
for the writers seriesI think it is a great opportunity
for people to sample a wide variety of writing, and Im
excited to be included in it, says Chavez.
Assistant
Professor of English Greg Martin says, The Poets and Writers
Reading Series is being brought back with some vigor just this
year after languishing for quite awhile. The Creative
Writing Program has grown in the last two years from two faculty
members to six fulltime, tenure track teachers, he says. Fiction
writer Dan Mueller and Martin were hired last August and, with
the addition of Thiel and Chavez, Martin says, the program
is now back on its feet and able to tackle and promote the series
again.