2008 Woodie Awards
Internationally known poet to highlight Good Thunder event
by Leah Christensen
Issue date: 3/4/08
Section: Speakers and Presentations
Thanks to the Nadine B. Andreas Endowment, the "Good Thunder" Reading Series will see an internationally known writer come to Minnesota State.
Li-Young Lee and Bronson Lemer join the series Tuesday with a talk on craft at 3 p.m. and a reading at 7:30 p.m. in Ostrander Auditorium.
Last August, the College of Arts and Humanities received a $7.5 million gift from the Andreas family. Richard Robbins, director of the "Good Thunder" series and an English professor, said the English department used a portion of that donation to bring in more marquee writers to MSU.
Lee is an extremely popular contemporary poet, Robbins said. He's a very good reader of his work, which is personal yet assessable. And among some readers, Lee carries a rock-star status.
"People snap up everything he publishes," Robbins said.
Lee grew up in Jakarta, Indonesia. His great grandfather was China's first Republican president. His father was a physician to communist leader Mao Tse-Tung. After spending a year as a political prisoner, Lee's father fled Indonesia with his family.
Lee's past has become an integral part of his work, emerging in many of his poems. "I can't seem to get out of it," Lee said. "I wish my past would allow my present."
But the desire to write stems from something much more instinctual than his past. Lee described writing as not something he chooses, but an impulse inside of him, comparable to a breastfeeding infant.
Lee explained writing sustains and nurtures him and makes him feel more alive. "My souls need for contact with the imagination," he said.
Lee describes poetry as a hunger for which he craves, and the paradigm of poetry is that it's the most information packed into the smallest space possible.
"I feel like I only understood poetry three days ago," Lee said. "I was reading the work of Ted Hughes and I started to understand something that made me think, 'wow, I get it.'"
"I enjoy a lot of his work," said Lemer, an MSU graduate student, an editor of the "Blue Earth Review" and the other Good Thunder participant. "It's bizarre in the kind of way I enjoy writing."
Lemer served six years with the North Dakota Army National Guard and was deployed in Kosovo and Iraq, but his writing career started back in his home town where he worked for the local newspaper as the wrestling beat writer.
He describes his work now as a blend of creation non-fiction, immersion journalism and creative writing.
"I like the abstract in the everyday world," Lemer said.
The memoir which Lemer is now working on reflects on his time spent in the military. Lemer said that period of his life has shaped much of his material.
"Anyone who has an experience comes back to it," he said.
Leah Christensen is a Reporter staff writer
Li-Young Lee and Bronson Lemer join the series Tuesday with a talk on craft at 3 p.m. and a reading at 7:30 p.m. in Ostrander Auditorium.
Last August, the College of Arts and Humanities received a $7.5 million gift from the Andreas family. Richard Robbins, director of the "Good Thunder" series and an English professor, said the English department used a portion of that donation to bring in more marquee writers to MSU.
Lee is an extremely popular contemporary poet, Robbins said. He's a very good reader of his work, which is personal yet assessable. And among some readers, Lee carries a rock-star status.
"People snap up everything he publishes," Robbins said.
Lee grew up in Jakarta, Indonesia. His great grandfather was China's first Republican president. His father was a physician to communist leader Mao Tse-Tung. After spending a year as a political prisoner, Lee's father fled Indonesia with his family.
Lee's past has become an integral part of his work, emerging in many of his poems. "I can't seem to get out of it," Lee said. "I wish my past would allow my present."
But the desire to write stems from something much more instinctual than his past. Lee described writing as not something he chooses, but an impulse inside of him, comparable to a breastfeeding infant.
Lee explained writing sustains and nurtures him and makes him feel more alive. "My souls need for contact with the imagination," he said.
Lee describes poetry as a hunger for which he craves, and the paradigm of poetry is that it's the most information packed into the smallest space possible.
"I feel like I only understood poetry three days ago," Lee said. "I was reading the work of Ted Hughes and I started to understand something that made me think, 'wow, I get it.'"
"I enjoy a lot of his work," said Lemer, an MSU graduate student, an editor of the "Blue Earth Review" and the other Good Thunder participant. "It's bizarre in the kind of way I enjoy writing."
Lemer served six years with the North Dakota Army National Guard and was deployed in Kosovo and Iraq, but his writing career started back in his home town where he worked for the local newspaper as the wrestling beat writer.
He describes his work now as a blend of creation non-fiction, immersion journalism and creative writing.
"I like the abstract in the everyday world," Lemer said.
The memoir which Lemer is now working on reflects on his time spent in the military. Lemer said that period of his life has shaped much of his material.
"Anyone who has an experience comes back to it," he said.
Leah Christensen is a Reporter staff writer
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