Working 1:1 - Suzanne Gardinier (writing) and Rickey McGhee '11

For more on the Working 1:1 series, visit: http://www.slc.edu/undergraduate/work/1-to-1

In Part 4 of the Working 1:1 series, Rickey McGhee 11 and his don, Suzanne Gardinier (writing), discuss whether writing can be taught, finding ones voice in the face of tragedy, and how studying poetry can make one a better person.

Rickey McGhee 11 is a poet and New Orleans native. At Sarah Lawrence he has delved deeply into African American and queer literature as well as focusing on his own writing. Hes now working on a long poem that deals with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He is one of the youngest fellows of Cave Canem, an organization for black poets, and has been active in campus life, founding the Queer People of Color student group and LASSO (Liberal Arts Students for Strategic Organizing), as well as organizing events to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

Suzanne Gardinier earned her BA from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and her MFA from Columbia University. She wrote The New World, a long poem that won the Associated Writing Programs Award Series in poetry; A World That Will Hold All the People, essays on poetry and politics; Today: 101 Ghazals (2008); the long poem, Dialogue with the Archipelago (2009); and fiction published in The Kenyon Review, The American Voice, and The Paris Review. Gardinier has received The Kenyon Review Award for Literary Excellence in the Essay and grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Lannan Foundation. She has taught at Sarah Lawrence since 1994.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• sarah lawrence college
• writing
• poetry
• katrina
• new orleans
• liberal arts