Poet CM Burroughs headlines Savannah State's literary arts week
Nationally renowned poet CM Burroughs will be on Savannah State University’s (SSU) campus during what the college is dubbing Estuary Week. Nearing its 25th year (in 2024-25), SSU's Estuary Creative Arts Journal has served as an integral part of connecting students across the campus through the literary and visual arts. The student-run journal has evolved to host exhibitions, workshops and other events. Now, the journal will host a whole week dedicated to the literary arts, beginning Monday, Nov. 6. Activities kick-off with an announcement of juried competitions for the student journal.
SSU English Professor Chad Faries, Ph.D, emphasized the importance of the Estuary moniker. “An estuary is found at a river’s mouth where its current meets the sea's tide, and sweet inland water is mixed with briny seawater. SSU sits on an estuary. The estuarine environment is one of constant change.”
SSU has undergone quite a bit of change over the last few years. Declining enrollment, resignations of its president and provost, a vote of no-confidence in the Dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS), and deactivation of the English, History and Africana Studies majors.
Faries cited Estuary Week as an opportunity for positive change brought about by the work of the Estuary Club and its President Nyree Wright, who summed up the value of the week. "I doubt my ability to actually make a career out of writing, so it's encouraging to see people being successful in this area.”
Wright, a sophomore studying marine science, also expressed that SSU students “don't have to be a writer to be a part of it. We are an organization that acknowledges most forms of self-expression.”
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GA Poetry Circuit brings CM Burroughs to town
Burroughs will essentially serve as the keynote for Estuary Week. Her presence is due in part to the Georgia Poetry Circuit, which was founded in 1985 at Mercer University. Faries stated that nearly a decade ago SSU became the first Historically Black College and University (HBCU) to join the Poetry Circuit, which features three poets during its annual cycle. Burroughs will be the first poet on SSU’s campus this cycle and she will conduct poetry readings and workshops. She then will read in public at 6:30 p.m., Nov. 10, at The Book Lady Bookstore, 6 E. Liberty St.
Burroughs is an associate professor of poetry in the English and Creative Writing Department at Columbia College Chicago. Her poetry has appeared in journals and anthologies including “Callaloo,” “jubilat,” “The Golden Shovel Anthology: New Poems Honoring Gwendolyn Brooks,” and “Ploughshares.” She has been awarded fellowships and grants from Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony and the Djerassi Foundation, among others.
Burroughs lost her younger sister to illness in 1998. “It has stayed with me—and my poetry—for these many years.” “The Vital System” (Tupelo Press, 2012) was her first book. She said it “thinks about the female body as a site of joy, sensuality, and sadness, among other things.”
“Master Suffering” (Tupelo Press, 2021) “is quite confessional and thinks about grief and how a person contends with and strives to survive grief.”
As a poet, her writing process has remained consistent for the past 22 years. “I start by reading poetry to get into the mood for writing. Once I am a few pages into a good book, my own subjects and language begins to evolve until I go to the page with a line or two and write forward from there.”
The other Circuit poets to be featured at SSU later this year will be Patrick Rosal (Feb. 23, 2024) and Chen Chen (April 12, 2024).
Halle Hill’s debut collection shines light on “Good Women”
Halle Hill is a Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) alumna and debut author. She will lead a workshop with SSU students. Faries said she has planned a unique craft experience for the students. Hill said she is passionate about lineage, intergenerational families, resilience, humor, justice, and tenderness. Her debut “Good Women” (Hub City Press, 2023) “delves into the lives of 12 Black women across the Appalachian South.”
She said that the setting "offers the women a sense of identity and belonging in the collection when they often feel othered in the world." One woman is on a journey to meet her sugar daddy’s mother. Another, a state fair employee, seeks revenge on a preacher. Another is plagued by guilt as she helps her brother plan to run away with a secret male lover. They brush up against strife and respectability politics. The women "have to choose how they will survive ― but Appalachia offers them moments of wholeness, reflection and respite ― often being their starting points for transformation."
Hill is from East Tennessee and lives in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. After attending Maryville College for her undergraduate degree, she obtained her MFA in Writing at SCAD. She then won the 2021 Crystal Wilkinson Creative Writing Prize and was a finalist for the 2021 ASME Award for Fiction. In 2020, she won the Oxford American Debut Fiction Prize for her short story, “Bitch Baby,” which also appears in her collection. Regarding her receiving the Oxford American award, Hill said, "1000% floored. Still floored to this day."
Most of the week’s activities are available only for SSU students except for Burroughs's reading on Friday. Also Hill will perform alongside Seersucker Live, 7:30 p.m. Nov. 9 on Front Porch Improv’s stage, 210 W. Victory Drive.
Joseph Schwartzburt is the education and workforce development reporter for the Savannah Morning News. You can reach him at jschwartzburt@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Poet CM Burroughs headlines Savannah State's literary arts week
