Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Birmingham native Randall Horton talks with Jeanie Thompson, executive director of the Alabama Writers’ Forum

Poet Randall Horton
Randall Horton

This week Birmingham native Randall Horton talks with Jeanie Thompson, executive director of the Alabama Writers’ Forum about his week-long residency in Alabama that included visits to schools in Birmingham and Montgomery, and a featured appearance at the Alabama Book Festival in April. Horton’s visit was supported in part by a grant from South Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. An award-winning poet, educator, editor, and organizer of literary events in Connecticut where he teaches at the University of New Haven,  Horton has published three collections of poems, the most recent of which is Pitch Dark Anarchy. He and Thompson discuss the current interest in historical poetry, his appreciation of working with youth in traditional and incarcerated settings such as the Forum’s Writing Our Stories program which he visited during his residency, and matching audiences and poets in successful literary events.  Horton reads two selections from his latest book.

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