KEANmag
7
Waxing Poetic
Acclaimed poet, essayist, and author, Peter Balakian, gave a reading and
lecture in the new North Avenue Academic Building on November 18th.
Balakian is the 2016 winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for
Ozone Journal,
and
The New York Times
best-selling author of
The Burning Tigris
, which
explores the American response to the Armenian Genocide of 1915-1923.
The crowd was made up of Kean University English, Poetry, and Holocaust
& Genocide Studies students, as well as visiting high schoolers from
Woodbridge and Asbury Park.
Introduced by his sister, Kean faculty member Jan Balakian, the author
and self-proclaimed “Jersey guy” explored his creative process between
excerpts from his books, expanding on his childhood as a student athlete
in the Garden State, as well as his experience as a descendant of Armenian
immigrants.
His writing was enriched by his background, he explained, because of the
power of “place” in his work. “I’m really connected to Jersey as a place. I
think 'place' is one of the most animating forces for the making of art. It’s
not the only force, of course, but a deeply animating force in the making of
literature, in the making of poetry.”
After the reading, Balakian was joined on stage by university students, high
schoolers, and members of the Kean community for an interview, taking
questions right from the audience. Speaking to the aspiring poets in the
crowd, Balakian offered valuable, practical, insight into the creative process
that could then be used to develop the next crop of New Jersey poets.
The importance of language in poetry, both written and read, was a key
facet of Balakian’s message to his young audience. “Whatever meaning is
embodied in my work is inseparable from language and the unique music
that poems create. The message is always part of language and part of the
discovery of rich layered and challenging language.”
Balakian has taught at Colgate University since 1980, where he is currently
the Director of Creative Writing, and the Donald M. and Constance H.
Rebar Professor of the Humanities in the Department of English.
The event was organized by Dr. Jeffrey Beck, Dean of the Nathan Weiss
Graduate College, who is also an accomplished poet, having won the 2015
Norton Girault Prize for his poem,
How-to-Blind-Cyclops Instructions
.
Pulitzer Prize Winning Poet Speaks to
Kean Students
Peter Balakian, the 2016 winner of the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, spoke at Kean’s new
North Avenue Academic Building.
