Poet Melissa Stein headlines last visiting writer session of the semester
American poet Melissa Stein reads her book "Terrible Blooms" to students and staff at the last Meijer Visiting Writers Series on April 25 in the Baber Room.
The sea of eyes did not wander as poet Melissa Stein read from her poetry collection wielding a podium and a microphone.
The Creative Writing Program introduced the Central Michigan University community to Stein at the last Meijer Visiting Writers Series event of the semester. The event was held at 8 p.m. April 25 in the Charles V. Charles Library Baber Room.
Having received a degree in creative writing from the University of California at Davis, Stein is a freelance editor and writer based in San Francisco.
Stein's poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, New England Review, Best New Poets and a wide array of other journals and anthologies.
The award-winning author read a handful of poems including "Seven Minutes in Heaven," "Anthem" and "Slap" from her books "Terrible Blooms" — her newest collection of poems — and "Rough Honey" which won the APR/Honickman First Book Prize.
"Terrible Blooms" is a newborn book from a week ago, Stein said. She had only read from it two or three times before Wednesday evening.
The CMU bookstore sold copies of Stein's books as she read. Stein had a book signing after the reading.
Stein said her mother read her poem "Portrait of my Family as a Cigarette" advertised on the Amazon site for her book "Terrible Blooms." Her mother went to her sister and asked why Stein's poems were so dark.
Creative Writing Professor Jeffrey Bean's first encounter with Stein's work came when he was 30,000 feet in the air.
"I was so intrigued by one of her poems that I had the urge to read it to the person sitting next to me on the airplane," said Bean.
Bean decided not to interupt the woman because she was leaned over with headphones stuck in her ears.
He described Stein's poems as both "barb wire" and "honey."
"(The Meijer Visiting Writer Series) gives students a professional perspective," Houghton Lake sophomore Laura Kleven said. "It allows (students) to hear professional writers with different styles of writing."
The Meijer Visiting Writing Series features readings by two poets, fiction writers or creative non-fiction writers of national prominence a semester. The venues are made possible by a grant from the Meijer Foundation.
A group of professors put on and advertise the events. They have begun discussing the lineup of authors that will visit the university in fall 2018 and spring 2019.
