Jason Poudrier Writes About His Experiences at Scissortail Writing Festival

The Scissortail Creative Writing Festival is the most happening writing get together in all of Oklahoma. It takes place at East Central University in small town Ada, Oklahoma. The town fills and the restaurants are packed as writers from all over the United Sates arrive to participate or observe, or often both, the Scissortail Festival. At this year's festival, writer's came from as far away as Alaska and South Dakota to participate. There were several -yes several- former poet laureates from different states, including Oklahoma and Texas. And Jim Barnes, the current Oklahoma poet laureate, read from his new book and mingled with other writers and literature lovers during the afterhours events that take place throughout Ada each night of the festival.

Books are sold and can often be signed virtually simultaneously; a long table holds all the books for sale by various authors reading at the festival. Rilla Askew, last year--I had read last year from a manuscript I am working on--signed my copy of Harpsong "to a fellow writer," which I thought was awesome.


This year I got a chance to chat with Nathan Brown an Oklahoma Book Award recipient, who also has several poetry books out; we talked about writing and an author who read at the festival last year, named Jim Chastain. I enjoyed Chastain's reading and purchased his book right after. The title of the book: "I survived Cancer but Never Won the Tour de France."

The heart breaking part of the festival this year, for me, was finding out from Chastain's friend Nathan Brown that Chastain passed away last year. However, Brown and another of Chastain's writing friends are working on completing Chastain's final manuscript for him, and they are hoping to publish it within a few years.

As a reader, I enjoyed the opportunity and was honored to read among such great artists in 2008 and 2009; this year as a spectator, I enjoyed the freedom of attending which ever session I chose (more than one reading occurs at a time in different locations) and listening to fabulous writers share their works and talk about writing.

(Note: The photos come from Scissortail 2010's facebook page, this photo album for the 2009 festival, and Amazon.com. They were added by Teri McGrath.)

Visiting Poet (March 29th)

Jenny Yang Cropp

will read from her work

March 29

@

7 pm


CETES Conference Room B

This is what she looks like:

She is a Lawton native, a former Cameron student and the author of the chapbook, Hanging the Moon (RockSaw Press, 2010).

Click on these links to read her work at Poetry Southeast, Boxcar Poetry Review, and Superstition Review.

Her poems have also appeared in Hayden's Ferry Review, Ecotone, Eclipse and others. In 2009, her work was nominated for a Pushcart Prize. She received her MFA from Minnesota State University-Mankato and is currently pursuing a PhD in creative writing at the University of South Dakota where she also works as the circulation manager and an editorial assistant for South Dakota Review.

So. . . wow!

Another Publication with Excellent Taste in Poets

This literary magazine right here:

(link ^)

has had the good sense to publish two of our fellow poets--and Cameron graduates--Tracy Haught and Jason Poudrier, in a special Oklahoma Writer's Issue.

Congratulations to them!

Jason Poudrier regularly attends the monthly poetry readings, so if you do too, it is likely you have heard him read some of the poems that will appear in Sugar Mule. We may have even heard several revisions of the poems. Jason is a veteran of the most recent war in Iraq. His poems, which often transpose images of the Iraq war over images of the Oklahoma landscape, present a vision that is probably familiar to a lot of Lawtonians.

Here is a bit from his poem "Red Fields," which is one that will be appearing in Sugar Mule:

our holes would be shallow,
and we'd push the sand up around
the perimeter, making
a false reservoir of safety,
knowing bullets would penetrate
the powdered walls if we were ambushed,
and our bodies would lie
half-exposed in shallow graves,
in pools coloring the sand
Oklahoma clay.


You can read some of Tracy Haught's poetry in the latest issue of Polyphony , where her poem, "Oklahoma," also presents a brave and authentic vision of our state.


Where sunset flames
On the western horizon
Like the sparks of past pain.
Like those who were forced
To walk until they could no longer be
What God intended them to be.
The only abundance was in tears--
Plenty enough for future irrigation--
but mostly they've been forgotten,
Overlooked in the stomping and clapping,
the humdrum of the average life


Sugar Mule is a really cool looking magazine, and I'm pretty excited about an issue featuring a lot of Oklahoma voices, like Tracy's and Jason's. The issue will be available on line in July, and eventually Sugar Mule will partner with Mongrel Empire Press to create a print anthology of Oklahoma Writers.

Here's a link to the current issue.

Read This!

Local poet, Tracy Haught, has some poems appearing in this publication:

You may have heard her reading some of these poems at the monthly reading.

Read them! Love them! Say so!