Vivian Shipley to read on Wednesday, October 18 7 p.m. at Hodges Library
Likely to slam Martha Stewart or commune with Sylvia Plath, poet Vivian Shipley is renowned for her intense imagery, vivid and gripping in its reality. Born in Chicago and raised in Kentucky, Shipley has taught at Southern Connecticut State University since 1969. She currently holds the position of distinguished professor there and also edits the Connecticut Review.
The author of 11 books, Shipley’s most recent work is Hardboot: Poems New & Old, which won the 2006 Patterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement. Her book When There Is No Shore won the Connecticut Book Prize for Poetry from the Library of Congress Center for the Book.
Shipley will read as part of the Writers in the Library series on Wednesday, October 18 at 7 p.m. in the Lindsay Young Auditorium of Hodges Library. She will also hold an informal discussion for students on October 18 from 2-3 p.m. in room 1210 of McClung Tower.
This event is sponsored by the Creative Writing Program, in association with the John C. Hodges Better English Fund, and Writers in the Library. The reading is also an Appalachian Literary Treasure as part of UT’s Ready for the World program.
The Writers in the Library series is sponsored by the University of Tennessee Libraries and the Creative Writing Program of the UT English Department. For further information, please contact Jo Anne Deeken, Head of Technical Services, UT Libraries, at 974-6905 or deeken@aztec.lib.utk.edu, or R.B. Morris, Jack E. Reese Writer in Residence, UT Libraries, at 974-3004 or rbmorris@utk.edu.
Martha Stewart’s Ten Commandments for Snow
by Vivian Shipley
I. Make the paths neat with a slight curve. Leave at
least an inch of snow. Aesthetics are important.
II. Pack perpendicular walls of snow. Cross country
ski through them to the gym. Snowshoe to work.
III. Walk your dog. Always hang a little whisk broom
on your wrist. When you see yellow snow, remove it.
IV. If you are old, stay in your home if you have one.
Tie grosgrain ribbons on sheets. Wash the gold china.
V. It takes two hours to make a snow cave. If you don’t
hibernate balled in like a snake, an igloo takes three.
VI. You can sleep out at five below zero. It will be cozy.
Dream a little. Dye the iced walls with food coloring.
VII. Wrap yourself in layers of pastel tissue from Chanel.
If you are poor, newspaper, cardboard, just anything.
VIII. Hypothermia could set in. First signs are that you feel
weak or sleepy. Keep something nearby, a bottle will do.
IX. The body is a furnace. Funnel or pour anything handy
into your mouth-86 calories per hour or 2,000 a day.
X. You may have problems walking on ice and fall down.
Don’t beg. In calligraphy, letter: Please Pick Me Up.
-from Vivian Shipley’s award-winning collection When There is no Shore