Poet to deliver semester’s last convocation
By Micah Sommer
He is the author of a dozen books of poetry and nonfiction, a college English professor and the only American to win Great Britain’s T.S. Eliot Prize. On Wednesday, April 7, Mark Doty will speak at the semester’s final convocation in Goddard Auditorium.
Visiting Assistant Professor of English David Ebenbach said that Doty has been called “one of the early enduring voices of the AIDS epidemic.” Doty’s partner died of AIDS in 1994, and this experience has strongly informed much of his writing since then.
“[Doty] brings a kind of poetry to us that we really have needed,” Ebenbach said. “It’s this poetry that is both romantic and miserable in some way … He recognizes how awful and painful and difficult things can be, and not only despite that … but somehow because of that, finds beauty all around in a way that we can see it, too.”
Doty is coming to Earlham at an auspicious time, according to Ebenbach.
“April is National Poetry Month, and it’s also the month when we have our Pride Week on campus,” Ebenbach said. “So a poet like Mark Doty, who I think has everything in him to be Poet Laureate and has been a really clear voice for the gay community and the gay poetry community, he’s sort of a perfect combination.”
Director of Events Coordination Lynn Knight predicted that Doty will have broad appeal at Earlham.
“Even if you’re not in poetry, you’re going to know who Mark Doty is,” she said, “and even if you don’t, I think enough of the students that do are going to say, ‘Hey, this is one you’re going to want to pay attention to.’”
Knight said that at convocation, Doty will read some of his poetry and also talk about writing and his life. At 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Doty will also facilitate a creative writing workshop open to all. The Womyn’s Center will host an informal discussion with him on Tuesday, and he will also be visiting two English classes: Creative Writing on Tuesday and Intro to the Study of Literature on Wednesday.
Several English professors, including Ebenbach, have been teaching Doty’s work in class this semester. Ebenbach said that interest in Doty’s convocation is high among the students who have been reading his work.
One such student is senior Claire McGuinness, who said that she is excited to hear Doty speak.
“It’s a big deal,” McGuinness said, noting that Doty is one of her “idols.”
In addition to the T.S. Eliot Prize, Doty’s poetry has earned him a National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award among other prizes.
Doty has also written several books of nonfiction, including “Heaven’s Coast,” a memoir of the gradual loss of his partner to AIDS, and “Dog Years,” which combines memories of his two dogs with responses to 9/11 and other thoughts on death and grief. He also teaches 19th- and 20th century poetry at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
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