Oklahoma Poet Laureate Jeanetta Calhoun Mish will be featured during an Oct. 17 poetry reading at Rogers State University. Her poetry reading is scheduled to begin at 5:00 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 17, in the Baird Hall Performance Studio on the Claremore campus. The event is free and open to the public.
Dr. Mish serves as the director and a faculty mentor at The Red Earth Low-Residency Creative Writing MFA Program at Oklahoma City University. In March, she was named as 2017-18 Oklahoma’s Poet Laureate, a program facilitated by the Oklahoma Arts Council.
Her most recent books are a poetry collection, “What I Learned at the War” (West End Press, 2016) and “Oklahomeland: Essays,” (Lamar University Press, 2015). Her first poetry book, “Tongue Tied Woman,” won the Edda Poetry Chapbook Competition for Women in 2002. Her second poetry collection, “Work Is Love Made Visible” (West End Press, 2009), won the 2010 Oklahoma Book Award for Poetry, the 2010 Western Heritage Award for Poetry from the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum and the 2010 WILLA Award for Poetry from Women Writing the West.
Dr. Mish has participated in poetry readings and workshops for more than 20 years, including repeat performances as a founding member of the Woody Guthrie Poets at the Woody Guthrie Free Folk Festival in Okemah, Oklahoma. Other venues include many colleges and universities, Telluride Institute’s Native American Writers Program; The Taos Poetry Circus Invitational Reading; Red Dirt Book Festival; Scissortail Creative Writing Festival, C.W. Post Poetry Center at LIU; New York State Writers Institute Community Voices Series and Readings Against the End of the World, both in Albany, New York; and The Knitting Factory in New York City.
Dr. Mary Mackie, Department Head and Professor of English and Humanities, said the event organizers were honored to bring the state’s poet laureate to northeast Oklahoma to share her works.
“Poetry has a unique power to amplify our inner voice and share our stories,” Mackie said. “Dr. Mish’s works tell stories of adversity, love, loss and everyday life using themes that will be familiar to all Oklahomans, but which also speaks to all people. I am excited to have her share her works once again with our students and community members.”
RSU’s Department of English and Humanities offers bachelor’s degrees in general studies or liberal arts with options in English or global humanities, alongside an associate degree in liberal arts with options in English or English (secondary education). The department also offers minors in creative writing, English, humanities, philosophy, Spanish and technical writing.
For more information on the poetry reading, contact the RSU Department of English and Humanities at 918-343-6810.