Poets

Linda Annas Ferguson chuckles ruefully at the old witticism, "Poets are born, not paid."

Outside of academe and small-circulation literary magazines, the market for verse continues at a low ebb. But the Charleston poet, like a great many colleagues, is not in it for the lucre. "It's a passion with me. It's almost like I have no choice," says Ferguson, whose new collection "Bird Missing From One Shoulder," has just been released by WordTech Editions. "I want to write it so much, it doesn't matter that it doesn't pay anything. My current favorite line is from a song by Leonard Cohen: 'There's a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in.' I just want to write about the cracks."

Ferguson is the author of three previous collections of verse: "Stepping on Cracks in the Sidewalk" (Finishing Line Press, 2006), "Last Chance to Be Lost" (Kentucky Writers' Coalition, 2003), and "It's Hard to Hate a Broken Thing" (Palanquin Press, 2002).

The Tar Heel native was the 2005 Poetry Fellow for the S.C. Arts Commission and served as the 2003-04 poet-in-residence at the Gibbes Museum of Art. Ferguson also is a recipient of the Poetry Fellowship from the S.C. Academy of Authors. Her work has been featured in the anthologies "Twenty: South Carolina Poetry Fellows" (Hub City Writers' Project), "A Millennial Sampler of South Carolina Poetry" (Ninety-Six Press) and "In the Yard" (Old Mountain Press). Her new work draws its themes from Ferguson's small-town upbringing.

"The cotton mill village that I grew up in is a way of life that is vanishing from our culture," she says. "There are a few people writing about it, but not many. These were the small villages of a few hundred families that stuck together through everything. It was a time when you never locked your doors. You could walk to church or school. As a child, you played into the night without any fear, catching fireflies in Mason jars.

"But the collection goes beyond facts and history and nostalgia. It reflects my parents' dreams and how they live on in me. Sometimes I feel like those dreams are buried in my DNA, and I dig them up and live them in my own dreams. The poems also are about the relationships between mother and daughter, father and daughter."

Writers are drawn to poetry for manifest reasons. For many, what they find so stimulating is that verse offers writer and reader a new way of seeing, of expressing experience and observation. Ferguson was seduced by how her journal entries could morph into verse. "I think my first experience with poetry was in the fifth grade, when my teacher put some silly ditty of mine on the blackboard. Reading it came later. I didn't start writing seriously until my late 20s. I was always a journal writer and one day, sort of spontaneously, the journal turned into poetry, seemingly of its own will.

"Writing is not a means to an end for me. I don't so much have a goal with what I want to do as I go along with the flow of it. In the beginning, it was a way of putting down my feelings and ideas in a much more concise way than writing out the full journal. I never thought about it being read by others until I got to the point where I wanted to workshop it and ask other poets if it was any good. From the start, I've written very tightly, trying to say as much as I can in as few words as I can."

Ferguson, who has been a featured artist at the Library of Congress' Poetry at Noon Series, published her first poem in The Crucible, a literary journal of Atlantic Christian College, now Barton College. Her influences remain mostly contemporary: Stephen Dunn, Rita Dove and Jane Hirshfield. "My poetry tends to stay in the narrative vein, but I do like it to have a lyrical quality," Ferguson says. "And I like to leave the reader thinking beyond the poem itself."

A one-time bookstore owner, Ferguson works at Blue Bicycle Books, a gratifying job because of the store's literary emphasis. It gives her a chance to cultivate more poetry devotees. As Walt Whitman opined, to have great poets, we must have great audiences, too.

What is it? Early evening readings by various nationally recognized poets of their own work. Readings should be exceptional as each of these writers are published veterans.

Why see it? Poets relish the opportunity to get out and be heard, and you'll be able to take in the work of such stellar writers as Linda Annas Ferguson, Paul Allen, Carol Peters, Carol Ann Davis, Rick Mulkey, Donna Levine Gershon, Linda Lee Harper, Ray McManus, Barbara Hagerty, Dennis Stiles, and Laurel Blosson.

PICCOLO SPOLETO • Free • 1 hour • May 26-30, June 2-6 at 6:30 p.m. • City Gallery at Waterfront Park, 34 Prioleau St. • (888) 374-2656

The poetry of Linda Annas Ferguson provides a view into a largely forgotten world.

The Charleston author released her fourth collection of poems this year.

Bird Missing from One Shoulder from WordTech Editions offers a unique peak into the lifestyle of a family living in a Southern textile mill town at a time when the industry was thriving.

"I was part of a family of seven living in a mill village," Ferguson said. "I had a wonderful time growing up, even though we didn't have a lot. The book is based on that life. Now the textile industry is (dying) and I don't think many people from that background have written about it."

In the new book, Ferguson addresses mother/daughter relationships, father/daughter relationships, the death of her father and the nuances of a Southern mill town in North Carolina. It is her first published collection that is not a chapter book.

"I think the neat thing about this book is it reads like a novel, but you can also just pick it up and start anywhere and still enjoy it," she said.

While shorter, her first three books drew much acclaim.

It's Hard to Hate a Broken Thing is a winner of the Palanquin Press Chapbook Competition, University of South Carolina-Aiken. Last Chance to be Lost is a winner of the Kentucky Writers' Coalition Chapbook Competition. Released just last year, Stepping on Cracks in the Sidewalk has also been well received.

The author says her first three collections contain poetry inspired more by nature. The books can be purchased at Barnes and Noble, Amazon.com or through her website www.lindaannasferguson.com.

Ferguson moved to the Lowcountry 11 years ago. She is a recipient of the Poetry Fellowship of the South Carolina Academy of Authors, the 2005 Poetry Fellow for the South Carolina Arts Commission and served as the 2003-04 Poet-in-Residence for the Gibbes Museum of Art.

"That program was designed to bring poetry and art together in education," she said.

"I have had the opportunity to mentor several Charleston School of the Arts students and working one-on-one with them has been very rewarding. The writing community here is just so wonderful. I feel fortunate to be in a place that embraces writing and the arts."

Ferguson has also worked as a bank auditor and a manager for an art gallery.

Contact Roger Lee at 873-9424, ext. 213 or rlee@journalscene.com.

On Tap

Linda Annas Ferguson book signings

Sept. 14 Poetry Society of South Carolina meeting at the Second Presbyterian Church, 342 Meeting Street, Charleston

Oct. 30 Charleston County Public Library, Downtown branch

Printed from the Charleston City Paper website: charleston.gyrosite.com

It's National Poetry Month. That's right, one lousy month to honor poetry and we get April: the cruelest month of the year. I thought I'd ask some local poets about classical music — favorite composers, do they use it for inspiration, that sort of thing. Turns out it's like asking random Los Angelenos on the street how their screenplay is coming along — everyone has an answer.

James Island's Linda Annas Ferguson was the 2005 S.C. Arts Commission Poetry Fellow. She's published three chapbooks of poetry and has a full-length book, Bird Missing from One Shoulder, coming out this June.

She likes to get into a "writing trance" by listening to Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Tchaikovsky, plus Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme from Paganini, which is also a favorite of mine. (Although I admit I sometimes like to skip ahead to the lilting melody from Somewhere in Time — it's technically the 18th variation, the Andante Cantabile, about 11 minutes in.)

"Sometimes I look to music for inspiration," Ferguson says, "to take me out of the everyday feelings that we get from doing mundane things like reading the newspaper or watching the news." She likens it to going out into nature, or to an art gallery or reading other poets' work. "As a poet, I write very tightly, with the least amount of words, so I relate to minimalism," Ferguson says.

She noted the "angelic" voice of soprano Dawn Upshaw's recording of the somewhat minimalist Third Symphony by contemporary Polish composer, Edward Gorecki. Subtitled the "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs," the words for each movement come from a 15th-century lament, a folk song, and from a teenage girl, writing on the wall of a Gestapo prison cell, invoking the Virgin Mary.

Carol Ann Davis also won the S.C. Poetry Fellowship, in 2004, and also has a book coming out this year, Psalm. The director of the creative writing concentration at the College of Charleston, Davis' attitude towards music when writing is the opposite of Ferguson's. Like John Cusack's character in High Fidelity in the record store the day after he's dumped, she just wants something she can ignore. Whenever Davis listens to music while writing, it's either one of two CDs: Coltrane's A Love Supreme or Django Reinhardt. "A lot of music bothers me while I'm writing, I get involved in it," Davis says. "It doesn't mean it has to have words, but something in the music causes me to pay attention to it. For some reason, and it's not that those aren't complicated pieces of music, but when I'm writing, I don't even hear them." Davis's husband, fellow Crazyhorse literary journal editor and poet Garrett Doherty, is more of a classical fan. His poetry has been published in Poetry, The New Republic, Verse, Slate, Seneca Review and The Southern Review, to name a few. "I love those Glenn Gould box things," he says, of the prolific Canadian pianist. "He's real interesting because when you listen to him you can actually hear him breathing in the background or singing along." Doherty, like me, isn't a snob; he likes the "old chestnuts like Tchaikovsky," and Barber's Adagio for Strings. Like his wife, when writing, he likes things he can tune out. "What's good about jazz is with all the improvisation, it's something you really can't follow, there's no regular pattern to it," he says. As for why poets are often classical fans, he muses that they identify with the complexity and density of it, adding "I don't know what good it does for the writing, though."

April is the cruelest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain.

—T.S. Eliot, "The Waste Land"

Jonathan Sanchez wrote this column at his office at Blue Bicycle Books while listening to the Talking Heads.

In the Yard: A Poetry Anthology
ISBN: 1-884778-41-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2006928473

Old Mountain Press offers a collection of poems by 70 poets from across the country. This 92 page book offers exception work with an outdoor theme. Its cover is full color laminated 10 pt. The interior pages are 50 lb creme color with black ink

Included are: Ruth Moose, Susan Meyers, Phebe Davidson, Jim Clark, and Janice Moore Fuller.

Authors include: J.S. Absher, Sandra Ervin Adams, Kathrine Russell Barnes, Frederick Bassett, Joann Bishop, Thomasa Bonners, Stuart Burroughs, Mary Margaret Carlisle, Jim Clark, Ed Cockrell, Frank Craddock, Russell Crews, Patricia Daharsh, Phebe Davidson, Polly Davis, Tom Davis, Terri Kirby Erickson, Sue Farlow, Linda Annas Ferguson, Ann Fogelman, Dare Freeman Ford, Tom Gluzinski, Marian Gowan, Phyllis Jean Green, Kerri Mai Habben, Ken Habben, Ken Hada, Kristina Hall, Maxine Carey Harker, Joseph Haymore, Maura High, Jackie W. Jackson, Jerry Judge, Debra Kaufman, K.D. Kennedy, Jr., Jo Koster, Blanche L. Ledford, Brenda Kay Ledford, Suzanne Baldwin Leitner, Maria Lund, Michael H. Lythdoe, Al Manning, David T. Manning, Stephen Miles, Paul C. Mitchell, Rebecca J. Mitchell, Jerome Norris, Martha Oquinn, Margaret L. Parrish, Patricia Podlipec, Michael Potts, Edwina Rooker, Dr. Lynn Veach Sadler, Joanna Catherine Scott, Martha Sisk, Sybil Austin Skakle, Warren Slesinger, Linda M. Smith, Susan Sonnen, Dorothea Spiegel, Tonya Staufer, Cassie Premo Steele, Dennis Ward Stiles, Nancy Dew Taylor, Katherine Tracy, Chris Vierck, Betty Watson, Gail White, Charles "Hawk" Weyant, Glenda Sumner Wilkins, Barbara Ledford Wright,

(FURMAN'S UNIVERSITY ANNOUNCES THE RELEASE OF A MILLENNIAL SAMPLER OF SOUTH CAROLINA POETRY

JULY 15, 2005: A Millennial Sampler of South Carolina Poetry includes 45 poets from the state of South Carolina:

Linda Annas Ferguson, William Aarnes, Gilbert Allen, Paul Allen, Ken Autrey, Jan Bailey, Frederick W. Bassett, Claire Bateman, Alice Cabaniss, Wayne Cox, Phebe Davidson, Kwame Dawes, Skip Eisiminger, Gene Fehler, Starkey Flythe, Keller Cushing Freeman, Vera Gomez, Aly Goodwin, Linda Lee Harper, Ellen Hyatt, Sue Lile Inman, Thomas Johnson, Angela Kelly, John Lane, Susan Ludvigson, Ed Madden, Joel McCollough, Terri McCord, Ray McManus, Susan Meyers, Ronald Moran, Rick Mulkey, Horace Mungin, Eugene Platt, Ron Rash, Alex Richardson, Kimberly Simms, Warren Slesinger, Brian Slusher, Laura Stamps, Nancy Dew Taylor, Sheila Tombe, Deno Trakas, Ryan G. Van Cleave, Ceille Baird Welch, and Marjory Wentworth.

"We believe that these poems represent both the state of South Carolina and the art of poetry well. A Millennial Sampler of South Carolina Poetry also serves as a snapshot of recent American verse." ....Gilbert Allen and William E. Rogers, editors

The Board of Commissioners of the SC Arts Commission is honoring six professional artists residing in South Carolina with 2005 Artist Fellowships. Each fellow receives $2,000 in recognition of superior artistic merit.

Five of Linda Annas Ferguson's poems are included in Twenty: South Carolina Poetry Fellows.

Twenty: South Carolina Poetry Fellows is a collection of the work of contemporary South Carolina poets who have received the state’s highest literary honors. Each one presents five poems and writes an introduction about his or her life as a poet. Kwame Dawes, Distinguished Poet-In-Residence, Louise Fry Scudder Professor of Liberal Arts, and Director of the SC Poetry Initiative at the University of South Carolina, is the editor. The book is produced in a partnership with the South Carolina Arts Commission.

Poets included in this anthology include Paul Allen, Jan Bailey, Cathy Smith Bowers, Jessica Bundschuh, Stephen Corey, Robert Cumming, Debra Daniel, Carol Ann Davis, Curtis Derrick, Linda Ferguson, Starkey Flythe, Angela Kelly, John Lane, Susan Ludvigson, Terri McCord, John Ower, Ron Rash, Paul Rice, Warren Slesinger, and Kathleen Whitten. Each has won a Poetry Fellowship from the South Carolina Arts Commission during the period 1977-2004.

ONES TO WATCH

Linda Annas Ferguson
poet
It’s Hard to Hate a Broken Thing

Linda Annas Ferguson has quite a year ahead of her. As the 2003-04 Gibbes Museum of Art’s Poet-in-Residence, she is responsible for guiding local middle and high school students through the challenging and rewarding process of crafting a poem. The seven-year-old Poets & Painters program brings students into the museum to create poetry or art, inspired by art featured in the Gibbes permanent collection. She may be following in the footsteps of some local poetry heavyweights, like Marjory Wentworth, Dennis Stiles, and Kurtis Lambkin, but Ferguson has some poetic heft herself. The 2002 Palanquin Press Competition winner has been featured in the Piccolo Spoleto Sundown Poetry Series, the Burroughs-Chapin Art Museum in Myrtle Beach, and the Weymouth Center for the Arts and Humanities in Southern Pines, NC. Her chapbook, It’s Hard to Hate a Broken Thing is available through the University of South Carolina, Aiken’s Palanquin Press.
—DELACEY SKINNER
PRESIDENT, SOUTHERN LITERATURE COUNCIL OF CHARLESTON

Poets set to take the stage at Sundown

(Edited from: CHARLESTON POST & COURIER) Saturday, May 24, 2003

….Free and open to the public, the 6:30 p.m. readings will be held weekdays through June 6 in the Dock Street Theatre courtyard, 133 Church St. Audience members are encouraged to ask questions of the author after each hour-long program. Signed copies of collections will be available for purchase….

Oct. 6: The Mary Edna Fraser studio presents “What the Water Gives Me,” a publication of art and poetry by Ms. Fraser and Marjory Wentworth, and “It’s Hard to Hate a Broken Thing,” a new book of poetry by Linda Annas Ferguson, with recent works, new monotypes and giclees on exhibit. 1723 Oak Point Rd. 3-6 p.m. with reading at 4 and book signing to follow. Call 762-2594 and visit www.maryedna.com.

On October 6, art and poetry join in a visual and verbal interpretation of the timeless, ever-changing wetlands and waterways of the south. Paired with prize-winning poet, Marjory Wentworth, nationally recognized artist, Mary Edna Fraser will exhibit recent works, new monotypes and giclées of her work. Inspired by her images, Marjory has written poetry and will read from their newly published collaborative book, What the Water Gives Me.

Distinguished for her talent in the ancient medium of batik, Mary Edna’s subjects are often the rivers and landscapes of her own backyard. She works from images captured from the portal of an airplane window, so that we see the world from the perspective of the sky. Her work transforms the earth into a silent meditation of balance and calm. Rivers are freed from their function into a world of space and spirit.

An advocate for preserving the beauty of the land and taking care of our world, Mary Edna has exhibited in major museums including the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum from September, 1994 through May, 1995 which was the museum’s first textile and one-woman exhibit. Her batik sculpture, “Charleston Waterways,” which is 74 yards by 36 inches is displayed in the entrance to the Charleston International Airport.

Marjory’s poetry takes us on a journey back to ourselves. We transcend the everyday and fall in love with ethereal shapes and colors. Her words like gold and red, blues and greens wander warm and cool through our minds. The author of Nightjars, a chapbook of her poems, her works have appeared in numerous books and magazines and she has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize.

In celebration of art and poetry, Linda Annas Ferguson, prize-winning poet and recent winner of the Palanquin Press Chapbook Competition of the University of South Carolina at Aiken, will debut her new book, It’s Hard to Hate a Broken Thing at the event. A recent review of her book by author Susan Meyers describes her as a poet who “keeps her eyes open, her ears tuned to the world. Her subjects are primal ones of parent and child, light and dark, hope and leave-taking.”

The show and reading will be held Sunday, October 6, 3-6 pm at the studio of Mary Edna Fraser, 1723 Oak Point Rd in Charleston. The reading will begin at 4 pm with a book signing to follow. For more information call Mary Edna at 843-762-2594 www.maryedna.com

Friday, November 13, 2009

An Interview with Linda Annas Ferguson, Poet

Printed from the Charleston City Paper website: charleston.gyrosite.com

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Linda Annas Ferguson.

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