Poetry-prize winner to read from award-winning manuscript Wednesday
Iain Haley Pollock’s poetry has been described with words such as ‘timeless,’ ‘impressive’ and ‘resonant with high style and blues.’
The Syracuse University alumnus is also the winner of the 2010 Cave Canem Poetry Prize, a prestigious award given out to outstanding first books by African-American poets, according to a SU news release published Oct. 5.
On Wednesday night, Pollock will read from his award-winning manuscript, ‘Spit Back a Boy,’ at SU. The event will be held at 5:30 p.m. in Gifford Auditorium. A Q-and-A session will also be held at HBC before the event, from 3:45 to 4:30 p.m., according to the release.
Pollock said his poetry conveys details and emotions the way he sees them from his experiences. Thematically, they revolve around the concepts of racial identity, love and relationships, as well as meditations on human mortality, he said.
‘In my poetry, I’m actively trying to leave the message open to interpretation and sort of open to what the audience or the reader sees in the poem,’ he said. ‘If I have a message, it’s that we’re all human and struggling to do the best we can with what we have.’
The event is part of the Raymond Carver Reading Series, which is named after the former SU professor and author of many short stories and poems. The series typically brings in 12 to 14 writers each year, and it is held by the creative writing program in the College of Arts and Sciences, according to the release.
The event is free and open to the general public, according to the release.
Pollock, who received his Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from SU in 2007, currently teaches English at Chestnut Hill Academy in Philadelphia.
His decision to come back to SU for the reading series was a mutual decision. He was at a creative writing conference when he ran into some old acquaintances from SU. Pollock mentioned that he had a book coming out agreed to return for the reading, he said.
Pollock also has a family connection to SU.
‘My mother and grandfather were both undergraduates here,’ he said. ‘There’s a familial pride in wanting to come back and read there.’
Pollock estimates that about three-fourths of the poems in ‘Spit Back a Boy’ were at least started during his time at SU.
‘Definitely the poems about snow,’ he said. ‘And the poems that are set in Syracuse.’
He also emphasized how profound the effect the creative writing program had on him as a poet.
Said Pollock: ‘I could have never written this book without learning at Syracuse.’
Published on October 18, 2011 at 12:00 pm
Contact Dylan: dmsegelb@syr.edu | @dylan_segelbaum
