“I Learn by Going Where I Have to Go” with Anita Skeen

On Tuesday, April 2, 2024, 35 people attended our virtual event, “I Learn by Going Where I Have to Go”, with host Anita Skeen. Skeen began the night by welcoming the virtual crowd with, “Happy National Poetry Month!”

Skeen shared an influential quote by Aldous Huxley: “Words form the thread on which we string our experiences.” This quote led to Skeen sharing how her exposure as a child to the King James Bible began her journey as a writer. Skeen explained how she believes story, structure, language, music, and imagination—the keys to successful storytelling as detailed by Gregory Orr—are showcased and taught within scripture and hymns.

Skeen shared poetry of her own and pieces from some of her favorite writers such as Margaret Atwood and Lisel Mueller—poets with whom she first had a professional and then personal relationship.

Skeen told those in attendance, “Look for the right word, and don’t stop until you find it!”

Anita Skeen is Professor Emerita in the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities at Michigan State University, where she is the Founding Director of The RCAH Center for Poetry and the Series Editor for Wheelbarrow Books.

She is the author of six volumes of poetry: Each Hand A Map (1986); Portraits (1990); Outside the Fold, Outside the Frame (1999); The Resurrection of the Animals (2002); Never the Whole Story (2011); When We Say Shelter (2007), with Oklahoma poet Jane Taylor; and The Unauthorized Audubon (2014, With Taylor, she co-edited the literary anthology Once Upon A Place: Writings from Ghost Ranch (2008). Her poetry, short fiction, and essays have appeared in numerous literary magazines and anthologies. Collaboration is an essential aspect of her work, and she is currently involved in writing projects for poets Jane Taylor and Cindy Hunter Morgan. Linocut artist Laura DeLind has recently completed a poetry manuscript, Even the Least of These: The 10-line Poem in the Time of Crisis. Anita also works with the Friends of Theodore Roethke Foundation to help organize events and serves on the board of directors.

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