Poetry Reading/Coffee House

Chase away the winter cold with a cup of hot coffee and a warm poem. The public is invited to a Coffee House/Poetry Reading Feb. 25 at Seward County Community College/Area Technical School. The event will feature SCCC/ATS students reading original poetry, acoustic guitar music by students, and gourmet coffees and desserts.  Also reading their original poetry will be SCCC/ATS English instructors Bill McGlothing and Janice Northerns.

The Coffee House/Poetry Reading is set for 7 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 25 in the music wing of the Shank Humanities Building on the main SCCC/ATS campus. Admission is free.

McGlothing teaches creative writing at SCCC/ATS and is co-sponsor of the school’s award-winning creative writing/art journal, Telolith. Some of the students slated to read have work published in the most recent issue of  Telolith.

While listening to poetry may not be everyone’s idea of entertainment, McGlothing hopes people will give it a chance.

"Reading poetry is good. Reading poetry aloud is even better. But to listen to a poem read by the one who wrote it is to experience a poem completely,” McGlothing said. "A poem is meant to be heard. Sound and sense combine to bring the poem to life.”

McGlothing and Northerns are both published poets and have read their poems at numerous conferences and events.

Northerns’ poetry has appeared in a number of literary journals including Concho River Review, Riversedge, Southwestern American Literature, The Cape Rock, College English, Borderlands Texas Poetry Review, and Coal City Review.

She has read her poetry at the MLA Pop Culture Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico; the Conference of College Teachers of English in San Angelo and Waco, Texas; the Texas Association of Creative Writing Teachers meeting in Beaumont, Texas; the Fort Concho Literary Festival in San Angelo, Texas; and the WTAMU Summer Writing Program at West Texas A & M University, Canyon, Texas, where she was a featured poet. Her awards include the Robert S. Newton Creative Writing Award from Texas Tech University.             

McGlothing’s poems have been published in New Oneota Review, Dismal River Review, Southwest: An Anthology, Blue Moon News, Blue Mesa Review, and his most recent publication, "The House of Twenty Dorothys” in The Midwest Quarterly.

He has given poetry readings in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Austin, Texas; Bossier City, Louisiana; and Colorado Springs, Colorado; as well as several local readings.

The Baker Arts Center in Liberal featured McGlothing’s work in 2006 in a dual visual exhibit/poetry reading illustrating the process of writing a poem.

SCCC/ATS President Dr. Duane Dunn is pleased that the college can provide a variety of cultural activities for the community.

 "I appreciate the faculty and students who have organized this event as another opportunity for our community and students to showcase their talent.  I hope people will come out to relax, enjoy coffee, and listen to the students share their writing.  This is a good reflection of what colleges did in the 1960s so the connection with our 40^th anniversary is evident,” Dunn said.

For more information, call Terri Barnes at 620-417-1451.