Harryette Mullen to deliver Bishop lecture

Juliana Kiyan Senior Editor

In the tradition of the annual Elizabeth Bishop lecture at Vassar, the English Department invited an eminent poet whose innovative work reflects a range of influences and criticisms. Harryette Mullen, an award-winning American poet, writer and scholar, will deliver the lecture on Sept. 18.

The author of several books, including Tree Tall Woman (1981), Trimmings (1991), S*PeRM**K*T (1992), Muse & Drudge (1995) and Sleeping with the Dictionary (2002), Mullen approaches poetry in a manner that Professor of English and department co-chair Michael Joyce described as “experimental…with the difference between the verbal and the visual on the page.”

Among her numerous accolades, Mullen has received a Gertrude Stein Award for innovative poetry, a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and her poetry collection, Sleeping with the Dictionary, was a finalist for a National Book Award in 2002, National Book Critics Circle Award and Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

To describe Mullen’s experimental approach, Joyce referred to a 1997 interview with Mullen published in the journal COMBO #1. Mullen said, “Traditions have usually been defined in part by what they exclude, so that if something doesn’t fit, that supposedly anomalous writer can be erased, or set aside, and then for the next generation it’s as if they are starting all over from scratch. So each generation is being denied this history of innovation, formal experimentation, critical knowledge of a writerly text, that may also be speakerly at the same time, may also be musical.”

Finding it difficult to to categorize Mullen’s poetic style, Joyce said that “she sees herself in five different modes…This is a fine scholar of literature, someone who knows poetic tradition and somebody who’s trying to bring together the many strands that make for contemporary American poetry.”

Mullen developed her craft as a student living in multicultural communities of writers and artists in Texas and California. She has said that her works draw inspiration from the social, political and cultural movements of African Americans Mexican Americans, and women in the 1960s and 1970s.

Her poetry today takes on a range issues, including cultural identity, feminism, popular culture and globalization. Once on faculty for six years at Cornell University, Mullen currently teaches American poetry, African American literature and creative writing at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Associate Professor of English Heesok Chang said that Mullen’s invitation represents “something of a departure for this occasion” in comparison to previous Bishop lecturers. He said, “The original idea for inviting Mullen to deliver the lecture came from my junior colleagues…She is, I think, the most daringly experimental poet we have ever brought here under the auspices of the Bishop lecture.”

Yet Joyce noted that Mullen’s work is still “very much in the tradition of Elizabeth Bishop,” the Vassar alumna and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet in whose honor the lecture is named. “[Bishop] in fact has a music that breaks through previous constraints, has subject matter that’s very broad and very open and very often plays with the verbal and the visual in poetry,” he said.

Joyce considers the Elizabeth Bishop lecture “one of the most prestigious poetry lectures in America…It is a series that intends to invite poets of the first rank.”

Since the Elizabeth Bishop Poetry Series’ inaugural reading in 1999, such distinguished poets as Mary Oliver, Yusef Komunyakaa, Charles Simic, Seamus Heany, Jane Shore and Sharon Olds have come to campus to read from their works.

Reflecting on the previous lecturers, Joyce said, “These are people who are maybe, on the face of it, less visually or verbally experimental than [Mullen]. But they really represent a wide range in contemporary American poetry.”

The Elizabeth Bishop Poetry Series is funded through the gift of Priscilla H. Rockwell ’47 and H.P. Davis Rockwell, with additional support from the Helen Forster Novy ’28 Visiting Scholar Fund.

“Rockwell put Vassar in the position where we have one of the most interesting and diverse poetry series anywhere…[The series] is very important, very brave, and very generous to the College and the English Department,” said Joyce.

Joyce encouraged all members of the Vassar community—not just English majors—to attend the lecture. “[Mullen] has a reputation of being a spectacular reader of poetry…She’s really someone who’s known for riveting an audience for an exciting presentation. I think it’s going to be an event to remember in the Elizabeth Bishop series,” he said.

Mullen will deliver the Elizabeth Bishop Lecture at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 18 in Sanders Auditorium. Admission is free and open to the public.