“An Evening with Louisiana Poets” is making its way to Lafayette.
“An Evening with Louisiana Poets” will explore life’s phases, adjusting to new environments — and the environment’s own adjustments. It features three acclaimed writers — Liz Burk, Randy Gonzales and J. Bruce Fuller — and their poetry collections, according to a news release from The Center for Louisiana Studies. The event is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Jan. 23 at the J. Arthur Roy House,
Burk is a psychologist from New York, whose adopted home of Louisiana is the subject of her new collection of poetry, including her debut collection of poems “Unmoored.” The poems are arranged by Burk loosely in the form of a memoir, according to the news release.
The poems span growing up in politically radical New York City, Parisian adventures, mid-life experiences and aging. The book has been described as both existentially serious and massively entertaining.
UL Press author Gonzales returns to the Roy House with his ground-breaking poetry about Filipino heritage and ancestral memories with “Settling St. Malo.” It takes readers back to a time when Louisiana had the largest Filipino population in the United States.
“Settling St. Malo” also explores a fishing village in Lake Borgne, shrimp drying platforms in Barataria Bay and the Filipino Colony Bar in New Orleans. It shows how social, cultural and political forces lead us to diminish the significance of these places and events.
And lastly, Fuller investigates how boyhood and fatherhood entwine to create cycles that mimic decaying and dangerous natural surroundings with “How to Drown a Boy.” It looks at the woods, the water, the oil rigs, and the men who work them all have a powerful effect on the speaker from childhood through adulthood.
Fuller’s poems examine the weight of a family and culture against a backdrop of climate change and environmental disaster.
Tea and refreshments will be served, and the readings start at 6 p.m.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Louisiana poets to explore life, nature at the Roy House on Jan. 23