Susan B.A. Somers-Willett
Susan B.A. Somers-Willett
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Susan B.A. Somers-Willett is the author of two books of poetry, Quiver (VQR Poetry Series, University of Georgia Press) and Roam (Crab Orchard Award Series, Southern Illinois University Press), and a book of criticism, The Cultural Politics of Slam Poetry (University of Michigan Press). In addition to her work being featured in The Iowa Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, Poets & Writers, and The New Yorker, Somers-Willett has enjoyed success writing across different media--for print, for the stage, for art installations, and for radio and multimedia--as well as performing in different venues across the country.

About the role of performance in her writing, she says:

There are those effects that you can only relate on the page, and those you can only relate by speaking. I try to honor and experiment with both media. It's true that some poems lend themselves better to performance than others, and I try to respect each poem's best venue, but I rarely find that my writing wants to stay on the page alone. It's lonely there.

Through reading and performance, I believe poetry can achieve new levels of intimacy and ecstasy, fulfilling poetry’s sonic and prosodic potential while still honoring textual nuance. It is the music of language—the odd and perfect turn of phrase, the rhythm of it ringing in my head for days—that compels my writing. Which is to say that how I speak the poem and what it says are, in my eyes, equally important.”

Poetry

"Women of Troy" six poems with audio, photos, and essays | Virginia Quarterly Review

What the Doctors Forget to Tell You About Morphine | Poets & Writers

Self-Portrait as Interstate 10 | Big City Lit

Darwin Strikes a Match | Virginia Quarterly Review

First Sex | Virginia Quarterly Review

Cow Song | Verse Daily

The Effects of Light on a Woman's Body [text] [audio]| Robert Frost Foundation Award

The Jeanne D'Arc Poems | WOMB

Essays

"The City Ablaze" essay introducing "Women of Troy" | Virginia Quarterly Review, Fall 2009

"Through the Invisible Cloak: Some Problems and Possibilities of Being a Reader of African American Poetry" | RATTLE #31, Summer 2009

"Can Slam Poetry Matter?" | RATTLE #27, Summer 2007

Audio
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"Women of Troy" six poems with audio, photos, and essays | Virginia Quarterly Review, Fall 2009

In Verse: "Women of Troy" Studio 360 with Kurt Anderson | 6 November 2009

 

Poetry Foundation Podcast [16K MP3] | 11 June 2007 (14 min.)

"Slam Past, Present, and Future," The Eclectic Word with Victor Infante [streaming audio] Blog TalkRadio | 17 August 2007 (1 hour)

Poetry Slam Incorporated Podcast [35K MP3] | March 2006 (30 min.)

Interviews and Articles

"Women of Troy: A Documentary Poem" The New Yorker | 10 June 2010

Narrative Digest interview, Neiman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University | 22 January 2010

"Women of Troy: Upstate Girls" The Huffington Post | 18 December 2009

"In Verse: The Making of 'Women of Troy'" Transom.org | November 2009

"Is Slam in Danger of Going Soft?" New York Times | 3 June 2009

BOOK/TALK: Conversation with Slam Poetry Scholar Susan B.A. Somers-Willett The Arts Politic Inaugural Issue | Summer 2009

West Branch Interview [website] | February 2009

Poetry Foundation Cover Story: Performing the Academy [website] | 7 June 2007

Carbondale Nightlife Interview [PDF]| 5 April 2006

Robert Frost Foundation Interview [website] | Winter 2005