SC Poets Visit USC Aiken

by Meredith Grace Hawcroft

Aiken, SC (10/04/2019) — The University of South Carolina Aiken English Department celebrated the art of South Carolina poets at a reading based on the recently released anthology Archive: South Carolina Poets Since 2005.

Dr. Jeffrey Makala, the special collections librarian and university archivist at Furman University and editor of Archive, led the event by briefing the audience on the origin of the collection.

"Over twenty years ago, two Furman English professors founded the Ninety-Six Press. Their purpose was to publish primarily single-authored books of poetry by South Carolina writers," Makala said.

"There was a gap in the marketplace and the cultural landscape of the state. The Press published many first books for writers and established emerging voices."

In addition to those single-authored books, Ninety-Six also published an anthology of SC poetry in 2005. Makala believes the state has undergone vast changes politically and culturally since that time, so recent poetry was compiled into Archive as a representation of the current poetry climate of the state.

During the USC Aiken event, six of the poets published in the collection participated in the on-campus reading, including Gilbert Allen, Ray McManus, Kimberly Simms, Jacquelyn Markham, and USC Aiken faculty members Roy Seeger and David Bruzina.

"Anthologies like Archive are important in showing the diversity of experience and poetic sensibility in South Carolina and that our state is home to a lot of talented poets," Seeger said.

"Publications like Archive and events like this reading are essential for creating a larger community, not only of readers and writers, but anyone looking for insight into the human condition."

Bruzina also appreciates the diversity of this collection.

"What makes the Archive: South Carolina Poets since 2005 anthology so unique is the breadth of its offerings," he said.

"Readers get a look at poems by authors from all parts of South Carolina who took such different routes to writing poetry."

English Department Chair Andrew Geyer noted that despite this breadth, there are uniting elements between these artists.

"What struck me most, besides the amazing quality of the individual poems each poet read, were the thematic connections and shared imagery across the poems," Geyer said.

"I'm excited to read the Archive: South Carolina Poetry Since 2005 anthology to see how the poems we heard at the reading connect with the rest of the work in the collection."

The English Department will continue to emphasize the work of South Carolina artists throughout the remainder of the academic year, specifically through the Oswald Distinguished Writers Series, which offers a fall and spring event, on Oct. 29 and April 17 respectively. In addition, the South Carolina Literary Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, which will include Geyer, will take place on the USC Aiken campus on April 18, 2020.

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