The Collegian

Issue date: 3/7/06 Section: News

Media Credit: www.stmarys-ca.edu : Mary Karr, author and professor at Syracuse University read from her works this past Wednesday as part of the Creative Writing Reading Series.

On Wednesday, March 1 in the Soda Center, Mary Karr, a memoir writer and poet whose works have appeared in The New Yorker and The Atlantic, read from her poetry and prose and answered questions from English Professor Brenda Hillman and the audience. The event was co-sponsored by the Master of Fine Arts Creative Writing program at Saint Mary's College, the Women's Studies department, and the English Department.

The event began with about half an hour of reading, including poems from her new book, Sinners Welcome, as well as a section from her second memoir, Cherry. Karr has written three other books of poetry, including Viper Rum and Abacus, and another memoir, The Liars' Club.

Karr, who is a recipient of a Guggenheim award and a professor of literature at Syracuse University in New York, began her reading by complimenting the audience.

"You're all very good-looking," she said. "At first glance you all look really cute to me."

The poems she read included "Revelations in the Key of K," "Disgraceland," "Delinquent Missive," "Last Love," and "A Blessing From My Sixteen Years' Son."

After the poetry came the section from Cherry, about her friend's idea of a "sex club" in the seventh grade, the author's crush on a boy named John Cleary, and the resulting kiss.

The question and answer period by Brenda Hillman and the audience followed the reading, and a few of Karr's books were available for sale after the event. The reading was "very successful," according to Chris Sindt, director of the MFA program and of the Creative Writing Reading Series. About 125 people showed up, he said.

Karr was a "perfect guest" for the Reading Series because she has specialized in both memoir writing and poetry, which the MFA program mirrors.

"I think it was a really nice mix of poetry and memoir, and I think her personality is just really exciting. She's a straight-shooter, and extremely thoughtful about herself and about writing, and about the ways that they correspond," said Sindt.

Hillman also praised Karr as "well-known both as a poet and as a prose writer."

"She's a wonderful writer and a wonderful human being, and she's really unusual," said Hillman.

Hillman also described Karr as "a really strong woman's voice,"and "very brilliant at describing things."

Finally, Hillman said that Karr has a particular interest for Saint Mary's as a Catholic campus.

"She's more recently come to the Church, " said Hillman, "so I think in that way, her work might have a different kind of interest than other Catholic writers who have been Catholic for a long time. There's a sort of freshness to it."

The next Creative Writing Reading Series event will be on Wednesday, March 22 at 7:30 p.m. in the Soda Center. The author will be Pulitzer Prize winner Gary Snyder in conversation with Sindt. The events are free for students; for non-students, a three-dollar donation is appreciated.

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