Two artists join forces for final Wellspring event to be held Monday

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Poets Traci Brimhall and Leigh Jajuga will share their work at the final Wellspring Literary Series event of the fall tonight.

The poetry performance will be held at 7 p.m. at Art Reach, 111 E. Broadway St.

“Her (Brimhall’s) first book, ‘Rookery’ incorporates a lot of natural imagery and birds,” said Robert Fanning, professor of English language and literature. “It is structured around different definitions of the term ‘rookery’ (a colony of breeding birds).”

Fanning said Brimhall’s poems are highly lyrical, deeply moving and extremely engaging, and her poems are often centered on relationships, typically human relationships.

“They’re powerful poems that incorporate dream imagery,” Fanning said. “They also find where dream life and the waking life intersect.”

Fanning said he chose a cellist for the accompanying poetry because Brimhall’s work reminds him of low chords, not depressing, but heavy.

Brimhall teaches creative writing at Western Michigan University where she is also a doctoral candidate. She is the poetry editor for “Third Coast” and editor at large for “Loaded Bicycle.”

“The natural world in (Brimhall’s) book with its violence often becomes a metaphor for human relationships,” Fanning said.

Fanning and Assistant Central Review Assistant Editor and Elk Rapids senior John Priest agreed Jajuga’s poetry will compliment Brimhall’s poetry well.

“Leigh’s work also contains natural, spiritual and human themes,” Fanning said.

Fanning and Priest agreed Jajuga’s work was influenced by Brimhall’s book.

“They both have similar threads in their work, while being very introspective,” Priest said.

Priest compared pairing Jajuga with any other Wellspring poet as pairing white wine with a sharp cheddar; they wouldn’t go well together.

Priest said it is inspiring for Jajuga to be reading with Brimhall.

Fanning said the creative writing program at Central Michigan University has more readings every semester than any other program he is familiar with.

Brimhall’s forthcoming book “Our Lady of the Ruins” was selected in 2011 for the Barnard Women Poet’s Prize.