In the final installment of the Raymond Carver Reading Series, Christopher Kennedy, director of the MFA creative writing program and associate professor of English at Syracuse University, answered questions from about 40 students of the ETS 107: ‘Living Writers’ class and read from many of his works.

The event was held in Gifford Auditorium in Huntington Beard Crouse Hall, with the Q-and-A portion of the event beginning at 3:45 p.m. and followed by a reading at 5:30 p.m.

When Kennedy first approached the podium to begin the Q-and-A session of the event, he looked out to a large group of students lined up at three microphones. It was their last chance of the semester to ask an author from the reading series a question.

‘So why’d you all wait until today?’ Kennedy joked with the students.

He fielded questions regarding his collection of poems, ‘Ennui Prophet,’ in which he uses the unique form of prose poetry. Much like his short paragraph poems, Kennedy’s responses were concise and to the point.

‘I thought he did a really good job at answering the questions quickly and fully and with a sense of humor,’ said Elizabeth Larimore, a freshman political science major. ‘He didn’t rephrase the question like some of the other authors had. He just answered it. He didn’t do unnecessary things.’

But others felt Kennedy’s brief responses to the questions did not always provide the most in-depth answer.

Hanna Bird, an undeclared sophomore in the College of Arts and Sciences, said a few of the questions were worded in a way that didn’t require a lengthy answer. But she felt that some were not fully answered or were written off too quickly.

The style of prose poetry was a common topic of conversation throughout the Q-and-A. Although he also writes short fiction works, verse poetry and sonnets, Kennedy said he felt writing in paragraph form made the poems more accessible and less intimidating to readers.

He joked about his unique style, saying that although it has become easier to get published as a prose poet and the style has grown in popularity, he feels there are few readers of the genre.

Kennedy said he writes more for himself than for the reader.

‘It’s hard to think about a reader when you’re writing prose poems because there are about five. Unless you’re forced to buy it for a class like this one,’ he said.

The collection’s title, ‘Ennui Prophet,’ came from an experience Kennedy had while attending graduate school at SU. When reading aloud, he came across the word ‘ennui.’ Though he had heard the word before, he had never seen it spelled out and mispronounced it in front of the class. He said the experience was one that stuck with him, and by using it in the title of his collection, he ‘gained some power over the word.’

Kennedy was open with audience members when they asked about his inspiration. He spoke about his father’s death and his mother’s struggle with Alzheimer’s.

Before he read many of the poems, Kennedy would preface them with a story, anecdote or warning. Before reading his poem ‘Things Required for More than One,’ which he called a love poem, he said his wife requested he read it to the audience.

Kennedy began the reading with a Pakistani poet’s works that he has been translating into English. He then followed with readings from his other collections of poems in addition to ‘Ennui Prophet.’ He ended with a semi-autobiographical prose piece titled ‘Sandy,’ which he read from his iPad.

cffabris@syr.edu

Published on December 7, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Casey: cffabris@syr.edu | @caseyfabris