For you Nashville folks who have yet to experience the programs hosted at Scarritt Bennett, the conference and retreat center located in the heart of Vanderbilt’s campus, you haven’t lived! One program, Poet’s Corner, is especially dear to my heart. I learned about the reading series when my high school creative writing teacher, poet Bill Brown, gave a reading there. To read an interview with Bill Brown in Chapter 16, another Tennessee treasure, click here.
The good folks at Poet’s Corner invited me to participate in October’s reading. The event began with local poet Brenda Butka, whose lyric poems are rich with images and tight language. Then I read from my new chapbook: The Normal Heart and How It Works.
I was so pleased to see many friends there: Paula McIntyre, Katie Fitzpatrick, Conni Ellisor, Ann Reed, Linda Beasley, Doug Rose, Linda Burson, Eric and Meagan Burton-Krieger, and Bill Brown. Casey and my family were also there. My parents, Marc and Jean, expertly manned the book sale table; they are long-time fans of Poet’s Corner. And my sister, Hannah, who incidentally was hired at Scarritt Bennett less than a month after they invited me to read, was the perfect hostess.
Rachael Lyon 