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From Page to Personal: How Poetry Became More Elastic

National Poetry Month

Samuel Prestridge will consider the mid-twentieth century shift in poetry in this From Page to Personal program.  The more strict attention to form of earlier poets was in many cases rejected in favor of structures that emphasized the poet’s own body and breath.  Additionally, in keeping with America’s changing cultural makeup, poetry became more diverse.  Subject matter, with the Confessional and the Deep Image poets, became more personal, sometimes shockingly so.  The aims of poetry often became more political with the advent of identity politics, such as the Black Lives Matter, feminism, and the LGBTQ movement.  The lecture will consider the beginnings of these changes and how they might have shaped current considerations of what constitutes a poem. His lecture will include readings of his own poetry.

About Samuel Prestridge

Samuel Prestridge is an associate professor of English and creative writing at the University of North Georgia.  He lives in Athens with his wife Jacqueline and their dogs Hank, Caledonia, Snoop, Bella, and Beau.  He has published poems, articles, and essays in a wide variety of journals and magazines, including Style, Paideuma, The Appalachian Quarterly, As It Ought To Be, The Arkansas Review, Mississippi Business Journal, Mississippi Quarterly, Literary Imagination, Better than Starbucks, The Lullwater Review, and Poetry Quarterly.  His first complete book of poetry, A Dog’s Job of Work, is currently seeking publication.  He plays acoustic blues and ragtime, and he smokes likely the best ribs on this or any other planet to which he’s been.

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