Editor”s Note. Next week, the Spy will launch an experiment with our partner the Avalon Foundation to use their brilliant Stoltz Listening Room for poetry readings called Spy Nights. On Wednesday, the 27th at 6 pm sharp, the Eastern Shore’s most distinguished poet, Sue Ellen Thompson, will take the stage for a reading from her new book, Sea Nettles.
There are a few notable things to be said about this event. The first time, to my knowledge, the Avalon has ever made a poet a “headliner” in the most complimentary sense of the word. It will also be the Spy’s first effort to move beyond its internet comfort zone to co-sponsor public readings by some of our most remarkable contributors. And finally, this kind of celebration is way overdue to pay tribute to the extraordinary work of Sue Ellen Thompson.
While it’s understandable that the Mid-Shore community, like the United States itself, doesn’t track the poetry world as closely as it does music, Thompson is considered a rock star of sorts. It is almost the equivalent of having someone like jazz pianist Brad Mehldau living in the hood. In this case, that hood happens to be Oxford, Maryland.
Given the breadth of Sue Ellen’s work over a lifetime and her observations of the dramatic change in poetry since she began her journey at Middlebury College in the 1960s, the Spy thought it best to ask Chestertown’s Meredith Davies Hadaway, her friend, and fellow poet, to spend a few minutes talking to Sue Ellen, poet-to-poet, for the community to get a better sense of her work and times.
This video is approximately nine minutes in length. For Tickets please go here.
Meredith Davies Hadaway will also be taking to the Avalon stage with fellow poets Erin Murphy and Amanda Newell as Word Girls on November 15. For tickets and more information please go here.
SPY NIGHTS: A WRITERS SERIES
SUE ELLEN THOMPSON
Stoltz Listening Room
Doors: 5:30pm / Talk: 6:00pm
WED 9/27 6:00PM
Wilson Wyatt says
It is always “special” to hear Sue Ellen Thompson talk about poetry. She is one of the exceptionally talented people nationally who have found their way to living on the Eastern Shore. Sue Ellen is praised across the nation for her writing. Thank you to Meredith Hadaway for this introductory interview. And, thank you to Spy for featuring Sue Ellen on Wednesday night at the Avalon. As the opening of “Spy Nights at Stoltz Listening Room,” this sounds like an exciting start for the arts collaboration between Spy and the Avalon Foundation. I look forward to being there!
Irene Fick says
Excellent interview. Sue Ellen is one of my favorite poets, have all of her books, and loved this interview. And agree with her role models as well.