Kevin Goodan and Kimberly Burwick present firefighting poems at WVC Nov. 19

Media Contact: Derek Sheffield, English faculty, 509.682.6737, or Libby Siebens, community relations executive director, 509.682.6436 (Mon. – Thurs.)

November 2, 2015

Kevin Goodan and Kimberly Burwick.

 

Poets Kevin Goodan and Kimberly Burwick will give a reading that focuses on wildfires and firefighting on Thursday, Nov. 19, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. in The Grove Recital Hall at Wenatchee Valley College. The reading is free and open to the public.

"We know that language, especially poetry, can help us better understand and heal from traumatic events," said Derek Sheffield, WVC English faculty and Visiting Writers Series coordinator. "During this past fire season, many people lost their homes as wildfires burned thousands of acres and set new records in our state. After working for ten years as a wildland firefighter, Kevin Goodan wrote a series of poems in response to burned landscapes as captured in wet-plate collodion photographs by Adam Ottavi. Kevin will share these poems with us as we attempt to heal and understand."

Kimberly Burwick will read from her book, Good Night Brother.

Goodan was born in western Montana and worked as a firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service. He received his bachelor's degree from the University of Montana and his MFA from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. His first poetry collection, In the Ghost-House Acquainted, won the L.L. Winship/PEN New England Award in 2005. His other collections include Winter Tenor (2009) and Upper Level Disturbances (2012). He lives in Joel, Idaho, and is an associate professor at Lewis-Clark State College.

To view Adam Ottavi's photographs and Goodan's poetry, visit the Terrain.org website at www.terrain.org/2015/poetry/let-that-fire-catch-me-now-kevin-goodan-adam-ottavi/.

Burwick was raised in Massachusetts and now lives in Moscow, Idaho. She teaches at Washington State University and in the UCLA Extension Writer's Program. She is the author of Horses in the Cathedral (Anhinga Press, 2010) and Has No Kinsmen (Red Hen Press, 2006). Her poems have appeared in Fence, Kalliope, Barrow Street, Hayden's Ferry Review, The Indiana Review, Hotel Amerika and The Literary Review.

The WVC Visiting Writers Series brings professional writers to WVC to give students, faculty, staff and community members the opportunity to engage with some of the most talented writers in the U.S. Through the visits, college and community members learn new ways to think and talk about writing, in the classroom and in their own practice.

The reading is sponsored by the WVC Transfer English division.