Poet-in-Residence program welcomes fourth writer

Sandra Beasley, winner of the 2009 Barnard Women Poets Prize, will be the fourth summer Poet-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi.

The author will reside in Oxford from June 13 to July 13 as a guest in the Lawrence House, a gift to the Department of English from John and Renee Grisham.

During her residence in Oxford, Beasley plans to continue work on her third collection of poetry, make weekly classroom visits and co-host a writers’ salon for graduate

students.

“I find that my setting influences the type of poems that I write, and I think that coming to Oxford, a place that I’ve never been to before, means that I might have a chance to write a type of poem that I maybe haven’t written before,” Beasley said. “So it’s mainly about absorbing the atmosphere of a smaller town, yet a very literary town, and get to do a little bit of exploring while I’m here.”

Born in Virginia and living in Washington, D.C., Beasley said she was excited to take the position of Poet-in-Residence because it gave her an opportunity to experience the South in a different way.

“I grew up in Virginia and attended the University of Virginia so I have a really

good appreciation for Southern culture,” Beasley said. “But my sense was that Oxford, which is not just Southern culture, but it has that fusion of Delta culture, would be a different twist on the South, and I wanted to see that and compare that against my Virginia heritage and culture.”

Beasley said she believes that setting and atmosphere greatly influence her poetry and the writing process involved.

While working on her second collection of poems, “I Was the Jukebox,” Beasley said the pace of life in D.C. inspired many of the “free association” lines.

“It’s in the nature of city life. When you’re taking a five-minute walk, you may see 16 things that have nothing to do with each other but all mash up together somehow, and I think that became reflected in the poems, which have that crazy city air,” Beasley said.

Her first collection, “Theories of Falling” (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2008), won the 2007 New Issues Poetry Prize.

Her poems have appeared in Poetry, Slate and The Believer, and will be included in “The Best American Poetry 2010,” according to a press release.

Beasley also won the Barnard prize for “I Was the Jukebox” (2010, W.W. Norton).

Beasley will present a public lecture and reading at Off Square Books on June 30 at 5 p.m.