Airpoets to land at public library for reading

Saturday, November 29, 2008
Joe Heithause of Greencastle is among five poets honored with their poetry integrated into the stained-glass window mural at the new Col. H. Weir Cook Terminal of the Indianapolis International Airport.

The Putnam County Public Library will host a reading by the five "Airpoets" at 4:30 p.m. Dec. 13 in the Kiwanis room.

Poems of the Airpoets have been integrated into and served as inspiration for the stained-glass window murals, designed by British glass artist, Martin Donlin, at the new Col. H. Weir Cook Terminal of the Indianapolis International Airport.

The poems also have been published in a collection, "Rivers, Rails and Runways."

From the book's introduction Donlin states, "Many of the windows have extracted the essence and nature of the poems to create a powerful abstract atmosphere, for others the dreams of far-off places and thoughts of homecoming I simply had to include the words."

Greencastle poet Joseph Heithaus is the author of a series of poems "Poison Sonnets," which won the 2007 Discovery/The Nation Prize. His poems and essays have appeared in "Poetry," "North American Review" and "New York Quarterly." Heithaus serves as chair of the English department at DePauw University.

Joyce Brinkman served as Indiana Poet Laureate from 2002 to 2008, and is the author of "Tiempo Espaņol," which was written in Spain while she studied with the University of New Orleans MFA program. Brinkman also collaborated with glass artist Arlon Bayliss to create lighted glass art containing her poetry that is now displayed at the Marion County Central Library.

Current Indiana Poet Laureate Norbert Krapf has a forthcoming book "Bloodroot: Indiana Poems" a collection of 175 poems written from 1971 to 2007. His collection "The Country I Come From" (2002) was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in poetry. Krapf grew up in Jasper and is emeritus professor of English at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, where he taught for 34 years. He returned to Indiana in 2004.

Ruthelen Burns is a mixed-media artist and a poet, who has shown her work at Southern Methodist University, the Herron School of Art and the Indianapolis Art Center. Her work was also featured as part of a 2008 poetry exhibit on art pieces at the National Art Museum of Sport.

Jeannie Deeter Smith began writing poetry as a young mother in the 1970s. After college, she began a career on the editorial side of publishing. With the selection of her poem "Streaming" to appear on the glass mural at the Indianapolis International Airport, and the publication of her work in "Rivers, Rails, and Runways" she began writing poetry more publicly.

The Airpoets, their collaboration and the resulting collection can best be described in the words of Joyce Brinkman, "When the poems from a year of sharing came together, the poets were surprised at how the poems spoke to one another. Each comes from a different place and the same place. They are poems born of an airport preparing to expand that have produced a shared poetic air that journeys through this book."

A reception and book signing will follow the reading by the Airpoets. Books will be available to purchase on-site through Fine Print Book Store.

For more information, visit the PCPL webpage www.putnam.lib.in.us.

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  • What a complete waste of money!!!

    -- Posted by 1stamendrights on Sat, Nov 29, 2008, at 1:53 PM
  • 1stamendrights:

    God forbid Greencastle/Putnam County have any kind of culture.

    -- Posted by nativeillinoisan on Sat, Nov 29, 2008, at 11:04 PM
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