Comstock town hosts poetry celebration with events through April
Submitted by Carson Now Reader on Wed, 03/02/2022 - 9:10am
Historic Silver City is the venue for a month full of poetry events this April. Several groups are collaborating to host four public events in the Comstock town during National Poetry Month.
On Sunday, April 3 beginning at 3pm, Nevada Poet Laureate Gailmarie Pahmeier will offer a reading of her poetry, followed by a free, optional poetry writing workshop. To reserve a seat at the poetry writing workshop, email Quest Lakes at quest@theodata.com.
Gailmarie Pahmeier has lived most of her life in Nevada. She was named Nevada Poet Laureate by Governor Steve Sisolak who appointed her to serve a two-year term, from September 2021 until August 2023, during which time she is charged with propagating the art of poetry and encouraging literacy and learning throughout the state. A 2016 inductee in the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame, Pahmeier has published three full-length works of poetry, as well as three chapbooks.
Widely published, her work has received a number of awards, including a Witter Bynner Poetry Fellowship and an Academy of American Poets Prize. Emerita at UNR where she taught creative writing and contemporary literature until January 2022, Pahmeier received the University Distinguished Teacher Award in 1995 and the Alan Bible Teaching Excellence Award in 1994, among other distinctions.
In 2017, she was selected as Nevada’s Outstanding Teacher in the Humanities. Pahmeier is considered a "domestic" poet, meaning that her poems focus primarily on family and home. Her April 3 reading and workshop are supported, in part, by the Nevada Arts Council, a state agency, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency, and the state of Nevada. Additional support for the event comes from the Resident Artist Program in Silver City (RAP), the Silver City Preservation Society (SCPS), Silver City Arts (SCA), and the Silver City Volunteer Library.
On Saturday, April 9 at 2pm, the public is invited to celebrate the contributions of prolific poet Irene Bruce, who lived in Reno, Virginia City, Silver City and Carson City during her long writing career.
The event will include light refreshments, a reading of Bruce's biographical summary for the Nevada Women's History Project (NWHP) archives, a reading of several of Bruce's poems, and a presentation by the NWHP explaining what the organization is, how to become involved, and how to contribute biographical information about Nevada women for the archives.
Irene Bruce (1903-1987) was the author of three popular books of poetry, and more than 500 of her poems were published in the San Francisco Examiner, Nevada Magazine, Sunset, etc. The quality of her writing continues to be recognized decades later. Some of her poems were included in Desert Wood, Shaun Griffin's 1991 anthology of Nevada poetry, and in Cheryl Glotfelty's comprehensive literary anthology of Nevada, Literary Nevada: Writings from the Silver State (2008). Bruce was poetry editor for Nevada Magazine, co-editor of the literary magazine Destinies, and host of a weekly poetry broadcast on KOH radio. The April 9 event is co-sponsored by the Nevada Women's History Project and the Resident Artist Program in Silver City, with additional support from SCPS, SCA, and the Volunteer Library.
David Lee, a major figure in American letters, will read from his latest book, Rusty Barbed Wire on Sunday, April 10 at 2pm. Author of more than two dozen books of poetry, the award winning poet dedicated his 2019 book "Mine Tailings" to the community of Silver City. Celebrated for his high-energy performances, David Lee was the first Poet Laureate of Utah and the Finalist-runner-up for the position of U.S. Poet Laureate. Awards include the Western States Book Award, Mountain and Plains States Booksellers Award, Elkhorn Poetry Prize and Utah Book Awards.
He has received multiple nominations for the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize. He was the fifth academic in Utah to be named a Lifetime Fellow by the Utah Council of Arts and Sciences and received the Utah Governor’s Award for Lifetime Achievement in both the Arts and Humanities. He’s an Emeritus Professor of English at Southern Utah University where he taught for thirty- two years and chaired the Department of Language, Literature, and Humanities for twenty five of those years. He received every teaching award given by the university, including being named Professor of the Year three times. He has come to Silver City as an artist in residence nearly every year since 2016. His reading is hosted by the Resident Artist Program in Silver City, with additional support from SCPS, SCA, and the Volunteer Library.
Award winning poet Shaun Griffin of Virginia City will offer a reading of his poetry as part of Silver City's month long celebration of poetry. His reading at 2pm on Sunday, April 24 will include some of his recent poems describing his experiences at the border of the U.S. and Mexico. Griffin has received numerous awards for his work including the Nevada Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts and the Rosemary McMillan Award for Lifetime Achievement in Art. In 2014 he was inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame. He has published more than half a dozen books of poetry, edited a number of books including an anthology of Nevada poets, and has translated Chilean poet Emma Sepulveda’s writing. Poet Gary Short notes that Griffin’s latest book, The Monastery of Stars, “creates a monument to the dignity of people he meets and observes.” The reading is co-hosted by the the Resident Artist Program in Silver City, Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon and Storey Counties, SCPS, SCA, and the Volunteer Library.
The Silver City Schoolhouse (community center) is the venue for all four poetry events. It is located at 385 High Street in Silver City, Nevada 89428. The town is 3 miles south of Virginia City, 12 miles from Carson City, and less than 30 miles from Reno. For more information about Silver City’s month of poetry events, contact Resident Artist Program in Silver City director Quest Lakes at (775) 847-0742 or quest@theodata.com.
