Kinship: Poetic Memoir with Colleen J. McElroy

Although Thomas Wolfe wrote, “you can’t go home again,” Colleen J. McElroy argues that you can recreate the home you thought you knew. In this craft talk, McElroy examines how “triggering town,” as described by Richard Hugo, has evoked and inspired her writing and how poetry is the folkloric vehicle by which she travels. McElroy is the author of several poetry collections, including Queen of the Ebony Isles, winner of the American Book Award, and most recently Blood Memory.

Colleen J. McElroy is professor emeritus of English and creative writing at the University of Washington. Former editor in chief of the Seattle Review, she’s published numerous poetry collections, Here I Throw Down My Heart and the brand new Blood Memory, was published as part of the Pitt Poetry Series, University of Pittsburgh press. She has published creative nonfiction including A Long Way from St. Louie and Over the Lip of the World: Among the Storytellers of Madagascar and received numerous prestigious literary awards.