Poet to read her works at Troy

Award-winning poet Claire Bateman brings her talent to share with students at Troy University.

She is the author of nine poetry collections, including: “The Bicycle Slow Race” (1991), “Friction” (1998), “At the Funeral of the Ether” (1998), “Clumsy” (2003), “Leap” (2005), and “Coronology” (2010).

Her most recent collection, “Locals” (published in 2012), is a collection of prose poetry.

Serving House Books describes it as “intimate, but unpredictable, each a keyhole glimpse into the life of a different realm where our normal logic doesn’t apply.”

Her poetry is “striving toward the spiritual, but in her vision the spiritual part of reality is not a restful realm far away,” said Wiredforbooks.org.

In “Locals,” Bateman writes: “On the first day of spring in this realm each of the fourth-grade classes must vote on whether or not to proceed toward adolescence.

“No one ever attempts to play hooky by faking a sore throat or a cough…”

“Claire Bateman isn’t just a terrific writer,” said Albert Goldbarth, a professor of humanities at Wichita State University and famous poet.

“Claire Bateman is a cosmos unto herself, one that’s interlaced with our own, but clearly not our own. Enter the realm of the Bateman cosmos, and you’ll return to our own as a different person; or, even more intriguingly, you’ll return as yourself, only more so.”

Bateman has been awarded “Individual Artists Fellowships” from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Tennessee Arts Commission, and the Surdna Foundation. She is also the winner of two Pushcart Prizes.

She has taught at both Clemson University and the Greenville Fine Arts Center.

Currently, she lives in Greenville, South Carolina, and is the poetry editor of the St. Katherine Review, a publication of Saint Katherine College.

The poetry reading will be held today in Room 122 of Hawkins Hall at 4 p.m.