Poet, teacher lectures to el. ed. majors
Students and Cache Valley residents got a double dose of nationally recognized poet and teacher Ingrid Wendt on Friday.
During the afternoon, Wendt gave a lecture in the Eccles Jones Education Building, and in the evening, she gave a poetry reading at the Chapter Two Books in Logan.
Her awards include the Oregon Book Award in Poetry in 1988 and the Carolyn Kizer Poetry Award in 1993. She is also the recipient of the distinguished Senior Fulbright Professorship in Germany’s University of Frankfurt and the D.H. Lawrence Fellowship in 1982.
Wendt has been writing for more than 30 years and teaching creative writing at several hundred schools and universities worldwide. The author of seven books, Wendt has also penned many articles and poems in periodicals and anthologies.
Eighteen students from the English department participated in Wendt’s lecture. She gave examples of her teaching methods and read a few of her poems to the group. She explained that her style of writing is called “free verse poetry.”
Wendt gave her definition of “poet.”
“[A poet is] someone that can’t help using words to express the inner truths of one’s perception that has never been spoken before,” she said.
Wendt also dealt with issues of feminism.
“Women need to trust their own perceptions; girls were taught that men are … authority figures,” Wendt said. “Women need to sense the claim of their own authority.”
Wendt also got the group to participate in a writing experiment that gave a true meaning of free verse poetry writing. The experiment made it clear that even young adults have personal issues just as young children do as they are growing up.
Wendt has been to Logan once before by invitation. Her lecture was sponsored by the English department.
Professor Bill Strong, director of Utah Writing Project, said the Project and Chapter Two Books helped bring Wendt to Logan. The lecture was sponsored by the English department.
Wendt’s poetry reading and book signing went from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.. The first poem that she read, “Of Nature of Touch,” was dedicated to her daughter and all parents. About 15 people came to the bookstore to hear the recitation.
Former English department professor Ken Brewer, who has known Wendt for 20 years, introduced her at the reading.
“[Wendt] is inspiring to the students from the elementary grade up to college students, and also to the community,” Brewer said.
Not only is Wendt inspiring to elementary schoolers, but she was first inspired to write in fourth grade. She tried writing short stories and fantasy novels. She then turned more specifically to poetry as a sophomore in college when she heard a famous poet.
“I attended a reading with Dylan Thomas,” Wendt said.
-flunsford@cc.usu.edu
INTERVIEW WITH INGRID WENDT
Utah Statesman: What are the experiences that led you to write about some of the issues that you raise in your poems?
Ingrid Wendt: Behind each of my own poems I have questions that I seek, moral issues, things that move me that create the dynamics of relationships.
US: Can you name a time that you wrote a poem, or anything, that took you outside of your own writing expertise?
IW: You bet! Two of my poems that are in my next book, I started out with just a topic instead of a thesis or questions.”
US: How did you adjust to the changes? Were you able to step up to the challenge?
IW: Yes, the poems are being published, Memory-Memorial, I was involved with two others’ collaboration with a lot of research that took a long time.”
US: If you were to write a poem about your life, what would it be called?
IW: Discovery.
US: How long have you been writing poetry? At what age did you write your first poem?
IW: In the fourth grade, before that I tried writing short stories, fantasy novel stories. Than not until I was in high school.
US: Can you trace your writing experience to a specific event or time?
IW: Yeah, to a time in my sophomore year of college, when I attended a reading with Dylan Thomas.”