Elisa de Souza

This coming Thursday, November 19th, the Women Writers at Barnard series will host readings by Mary Gordon, Saskia Hamilton and Timea Szell, three highly acclaimed writers and Barnard professors. The event will be an engaging and diverse evening of poetry, narrative and memoirs, and will take place in Sulzberger Parlor at the Barnard College campus at 7pm.
Mary Gordon has produced an impressive body of work in novels, short stories, novellas, poetry and essays. An alumna of Barnard College herself, she is a professor of English. Recently, she has taught The Modern Novel and a Story Writing course, for which she is particularly popular. Throughout much of her writing, Gordon has grappled with family dynamics, the complications and rewards in religion, and the prejudices and challenges that go along with being a woman.
Gordon avidly participated in the feminist movement during her undergraduate studies at Barnard, and in her work, one detects a powerful sense of female individuality. As she said in a past interview, “What is terribly important to me…is to write about issues that are central to women’s lives, to write about them beautifully and in high style.”
And in order to write in this “beautiful” and “high style,” Gordon has a specific and delightful recipe. In a piece she wrote for The New York Times, “Putting Pen to Paper, But Not Just Any Pen or Just Any Paper,” she expresses the need to write by hand – a “labor [that] has virtue.” She describes the process of watching ink bleed through paper and curve in their letters is described as intimate and self-grounding.
Timea Szell, currently the Director of the Creative Writing Program at Barnard, likewise contemplates the laborious nature of writing: “I know that writing for me is a fraught and slow activity. Deeply unpleasant.” Yet she, like Gordon, finds virtue in this process. As she continued, “Though when I write, it also the way to feeling most fully challenged.”
Szell is Hungarian, having immigrated to the United States at the age of 17. The varied subject of her writing is in dialogue with the numerous departments in which she teaches– Creative Writing, Medieval Literature and Women’s Studies – and with her interest in animal studies.
Szell already has plans for her next project. It will be “a disciplinary mix of memoir writing and academic inquiry centering on animal presences and absences in [her] own life” – a testimony to her mélange of interests and practices in academic, historical and creative fields. She is currently translating her father’s memoirs, an experience of which she will be sharing with her audience on Thursday evening.
Saskia Hamilton, the Director of the Women Writers series, is a poet and a professor in the English department. She has recently been awarded a Guggenheim fellowship and has written two books of poetry, “As for Dream” (2001) and “Divide These” (2005).
Hamilton’s writing is clear and simple, but intricate in imagery and elaborate in thought. In one of her poems, “The Song in the Dream,” she offers a powerful description of a book that “[sighs] and [expands].” This is precisely how her words flow off the page – they are light and open, and spill before us, making complicated thoughts poignant and accessible.
Tomorrow evening, this group of notable women will deliver their words in an event marked by evenings of powerful, female language. Saskia Hamilton once said in a past interview with the Columbia Spectator that the series aims to present a “balance of aesthetics.” Given the dynamic background of all three writers, this balance is exactly what tomorrow’s reading will provide.

On Thursday evening, September 24th, ADP Lit hosted a ‘Found Poetry’ event. In the invitation to the event, ADP reminded us of the “wordy world” we live in and asked us to “find poetry in the random junk of our lives.” As I sat, encased between dark blue walls and faced with a giant and marvelously imposing moose head, I listened to all the words our piers had to express, whether found or not, their own or another’s.
At first, I listened, consciously recording phrases for the article I knew I would sit down to write later in the night, and wondered whether there was some sort of list of names of the speakers that were at the event. But, as time and words slipped by, I drifted into the informal, relaxing space; it was not about particular people or specific works, but rather about a shared experience. It sort of felt- although I was not particularly familiar with many people there- like a gathering with friends, where people were sharing the things they loved to read or write.
It was a pleasure to see a passion for poetic expression. Words were juggled, manipulated, and thickened. One lovely instance in the night was when one reader revealed that she had checked out a book out of the library and had found a poem between the pages. Indeed, this was the perfect example of a ‘found’ poem. And then there were also the less obvious instances of found poetry; one reader read words and sentence fragments from her sketchbook and combined them into one piece.

I suppose that college is one of the few times that one can hear the jumbled yet personal thoughts of strangers, who are not quite strangers, in an intimate environment.

The Women Poets and Writers at Barnard series culminated with the impressive and highly acclaimed American writer and feminist Adrienne Rich and South African poet Antjie Krog. These reputable authors spoke at the Altschul auditorium in lieu of the usual small and quaint Sulzberger Parlor. The location, along with the fact that numerous other departments sponsored the event, made the hearing very different from previous experiences with the program. In walking in, there was a sense of importance and formality; the audience had their standards, their expectations. In previous readings, each female writer was someone to discover; her words were freshly exposed, unfamiliar, and meant to be explored, and, one may say, judged. But, last evening, as I sat waiting for these women to speak, I expected something great from, as introduced, the “women who work at knowing what they don’t want to know.”
Antjie Krog opened the program with a poem, which though composed entirely of unfamiliar words, conveys emotions and the true nature of language with a power that I have rarely witnessed. This is largely due to her breathtaking reading, which is rich in fluctuating rhythm, sound, and pace. Her first poem dealt with, as she put it, the “outside, inside tension” of a mountain. This tension was immediately felt as tonality shifted from calm to anguished to morose to excited. Though she kept repeating and weaving the same words and phrases, they nonetheless appeared to change and evolve. Interestingly, Krog’s fiercest, most moving moments in her reading were heard in whispers. The softer she spoke, the more I felt I heard and understood. She finished the poem ever quieter, with broken-up and barely distinguishable words. A loud, long applause followed.
Adrienne Rich gave a meaningful and personal introduction before beginning her readings. She reflected on the tragic and confused state of our world, a reflection that largely resonates in her work. The first work that she read, ‘A Dream and A Death of the Obvious,’ passionately spoke about how we are all “limited by authority” without always knowing what or who that authority really is. She spoke as the woman she describes in her poem, “a woman feeling the fullness of her powers.” Rich grips the tough aspects of the world and the challenges that women are faced with, and responds with blatant opinions and eye-opening observations. It was interesting and refreshing to hear Rich speak of such passionate, and often angry, topics in such a conversational, calm, and rational manner. She spoke, with ease, from the heart. In one poem, though, she removes herself from her own voice. In introducing ‘Letters to a Young Poet,’ she said: “in this poem the voice is not my voice…but the voice of poetry.” In this work, poetry speaks from the place where life really is, where you can “distract your thirst for closure and escape.” Poetry also attacks and questions us humans, asking us what it is meant to “be.” But as this poem comes to a close, poetry questions itself: “who anyway wants to know this pale mouth?”
Rich’s poems emphasize that words are their own beings. Words have a power that allows them to transcend into the physical world- for, as her poem ‘Transparencies’ puts, “Word and body are all we have on the line.” In this poem, Rich likens words to glass- you can “break, “crush,” and “clean” them. Though this metaphor describes the freedom to manipulate and use words, the images’ roughness and sharpness portray words as at times perilous, and always strong and firm.
Krog’s poem, ‘Writing Ode’ describes a same sort of permanence in words. With her gentle, penetrating voice, she read, “words do not manage to leave you, words do not manage to keep you.” The poem goes on to describe a beautiful, romantic, but often painful relationship between her and words. Words are, as in Rich’s work, potentially harmful and frightening in their powerful and ever-lasting presence. But she ends the poem accepting words in their entirety, expressing a pleasure that is felt sexually: “yes, you have come to sleep in me…touch me, tonight.”
One could say, from the work sampled last evening, that Rich delves deeper into a wider social analysis while Krog digs into herself. Yet both displayed a common concern and awe towards words and the body. Krog depicts words as things that have crept into her, that give her life and will never leave. But it is the body that proves that she has this life. In ‘Body Bereft’ she challenges Descartes and asserts: “I have a body therefore I am.” Thus Krog would likely agree with Rich that “word and body are all we have on the line.”
After sharing their words with their audience, the two writers embraced. With bodies interlocked, Rich and Krog exhibited a mutual understanding and appreciation for words.

Yesterday, at the Women Poets at Barnard series, Rachel Wetzsteon, Evie Shockley, and Katha Pollitt shared their work with a small audience in the comfortable and communal environment of Sulzberger Parlor at Barnard College. One could sense that as the audience settled into their seats, they were there for their own enjoyment, to escape into a rare moment of relaxation while listening to poetry.
Whether last night’s readings met the audience’s expectations, however, is doubtful. All three poets read mostly narrative style poems, which rarely impressed the audience with unique or powerful language. Most frustrating of all were the poets’ attitudes toward their own work. In tradition, Barnard students introduced the poets with admiring comments and analyses on the poets’ works and lives. Each poet made a point to express that her poems, as Evie Shockley put it,  “cannot live up to the introduction.” Through these self-deprecating comments, one is left to assume that these poets are somehow disconnected from their words, not proud of them or energetic to read them. If they do not think their work is worth sharing, why should we?
Rachel Wetzsteon came off as most unconfident as she spoke rather disjointedly, nervously reading her work and constantly feeling the need to explain herself. For the most part, her language failed to fully captivate the audience, although certain familiar subjects such as the Low Library may have interested some. A lot of her writing centers on life in New York. Her descriptions of the city, though, are grounded in Starbucks and bus ride clichés. Curiously, she refers to this ‘cliché quality’ in one of her poems: “to every cliché is a gem of truth.” Perhaps so, but this truth did not explicitly deliver itself. Wetzsteon did manage to introduce some unique themes, however, with her poem ‘Rain at Reading,’ which explores the relationship between our words and the climate.
Evie Shockley did not particularly enchant her audience with her language or ideas, but more with the passion embedded in her poems. Each poem has a purpose, has a powerful, clear subject- such as human rights or Ella Fitzgerald. Shockley chose not to introduce each of her poems. This, after Wetzsteon, was refreshing, for it allowed one to just absorb her words in their pure form, without incessant explanation.
Katha Pollitt, casually leaning against the podium, felt at ease with her audience and read her poems in a light, and at times humorous, tone. It seems suitable to have had Pollitt read at Barnard College, for much of her work discusses the woman and her roles and myths. She does not reveal any novel notions of the woman and the family; but perhaps her intent is to disclose the everyday, domestic details, the moments that are ignored on “rinsed, simple mornings.”
In one of Shockley’s poems, she says “a poem should show not tell” and that “a poem appeals perversely to the senses.” Agreed. Sadly, the three poets mostly told thoughts, stories, and moments that lacked any sensual pleasure or intrigue.

Yvette Christiansë delivered a breathtaking reading Tuesday evening at the Women Poets and Writers series at Barnard College. She is a poet and novelist, and is currently a visiting professor at the Africana Studies department at Barnard.
Her upcoming book Imprendehora is a collection of poems, which, like much of her previous work, are reflections on the atrocities of slavery. She read a selection of poems, and did so with powerful tones that varied from soft and somber to angry and tormenting. The word ‘Imprendehora’- the name of the slave ship- erupted each time it was read in a poem. Its emotional weight hung in the room, delivering an ungraspable pain.
Christiansë’s writing is marked by intense, vivid, and material imagery. In Imprendehora the cold images of stones, the haunting sounds of swallowing, the taunting line of the horizon, and the suffering bodies weave through and connect the poems, resonating Christiansë’s words that “this hurts.” Her descriptions, particularly those drawn from nature, are stunning and remarkably unique. One detects an intimate and necessary relationship with the night and day. In an earlier poem, a slave recalls that the “moon spilled a little on my mother’s hands.” Later, a slave yearns for the sun, claiming that he/she “will swallow it like an egg.”
Amidst these beautiful readings the moved audience smiled, closed their eyes, and quietly nodded their heads.
Christiansë ended her reading with a poem she is working on entitled ‘What Might Have Been.’ Before she read it, she claimed that she would “read it with some trepidation.” The poem aims to reveal the stories behind the names and numbers, detailed in an archive, of a group of liberated Africans who were being sent to plantations in Brazil. At first, I was disappointed in the poem’s style. Fragments of rich imagery were shyly tucked between repetitive, raw facts such as the name of a slave, his/her height, and the name of his/her mother. Gradually, however, the form loosens, and sensitive, intimate thoughts unravel. When the facts return at the end of the poem, they resonate with fuller meaning.
After her reading, Christiansë expressed her instinct to let this poem “stay on the page,” and stated: “I don’t think I will read it again.” She explained how careful she felt she should be when elaborating on these archives, hence why she admits that “the form” of the beginning “is very broken,” inserting “the pleasure of [her] own writing” only later on.
Christiansë revealed her troubled and conflicted conscious when she said that “maybe, in some ways, the dead must be let go,” which immediately followed with the cry, “but the numbers are still there.”
One sensed that the harrowing experiences of slavery’s history constantly haunt Christiansë. As she read from her work, one felt her effort to dig through the slaves’ minds. At the close of the evening, Christiansë revealed that she too was also digging through herself: “if there is something that the archival teaches you, it is your own longings.”
Yvette Christiansë was a delight to hear, and was certainly the highlight of the Women Poets and Writers series this semester so far.