{"id":14346,"date":"2012-11-18T07:51:41","date_gmt":"2012-11-18T13:51:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/?p=14346"},"modified":"2020-08-14T14:52:36","modified_gmt":"2020-08-14T20:52:36","slug":"jennifer-sinor-and-michael-sowder-at-city-ar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/jennifer-sinor-and-michael-sowder-at-city-ar\/","title":{"rendered":"Jennifer Sinor and Michael Sowder at CITY ART"},"content":{"rendered":"

 <\/p>\n

Two extraordinary, Pushcart nominated, award-winning authors spoke last Wednesday in the latest installment from CITY ART. The reading series, held in the SLC Library fourth floor auditorium, is free and open to the public. Last night it featured Jennifer Sinor, Chair of Literature & Writing at Utah State and a Norton Anthologized nonfiction writer, and poet Michael Sowder, Chair of Creative Writing at Utah State and T.S. Eliot Poetry Prize winner.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Jennifer Sinor.<\/p><\/div>\n

Suspended dramatically over the city, Sinor read from a collection of mesmerizing essays that feature men in her life and question masculine narratives. Her writing is deeply touching, anchored in place and physicality. In \u201cMemories of the Future,\u201d Sinor described her young brother\u2019s mischievous build-a-bomb disaster. The explosion left fissures like dried lava across his face and chest, permanently mapped on his body in a topography of loss.<\/p>\n

How does trauma inform our present identities, she seemed to ask, our collective shame, our rejections of self and others? What about our ability to accept and love whole-heartedly, to mitigate future losses?<\/p>\n

Sinor\u2019s second reading, \u201cOpenings,\u201d isolated her father\u2019s hands, their marked aging, the slight shake that motivated him to hide them deep in pockets, prevent discovery and labeling. When he tried to open a jar of pickles, \u201cyou head in the other direction, toward your bedroom . . . unwilling to witness the quiet desperation with which he confronts the jar.\u201d The beautiful essay is available online at Brevity<\/a>. Also online, her exquisite \u201cThe Little Bear,\u201d published by ASCENT, engenders astonishment and connection.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Michael Sowder<\/p><\/div>\n

Michael Sowder took the stage to read poetry from his superb House Under the Moon<\/em> and The Empty Boat.<\/em>Raised staunchly Catholic, Sowder\u2019s spiritual path wound through an \u201caltered-consciousness\u201d experiment in early adulthood before he turned to yoga and meditation, nearly took vows as a monk, and found a twenty-year respite in Buddhism. In many ways, he\u2019s circled back to a yogic practice, and House Under the Moon<\/em> reflects this eclectic spirituality rich in yogic, Hindu tradition.<\/p>\n

Sowder\u2019s poems about spirituality, fatherhood, and the beloved are transcendent. \u201cOut of the mud and muck of the middle things, \/ something [is] unfolding, being born,\u201d he says in House Under the Moon<\/em>\u2019s \u201cThe Middle Way.\u201d While those in the Sufi tradition practice self-denial, drinking can be a symbol of divine intoxication, as when the speaker\u2019s interior shifts in The Empty Boat<\/em>\u2019s \u201cThat Drink.\u201d<\/p>\n

More and more things
\nkindle inside,
\nincandesce.<\/p>\n

More and more edges
\nsoften, thin,
\nuntil all the transoms open<\/p>\n

and you see how things
\nare sunk and set in light.
\nThen the heart<\/p>\n

finds its mate
\neverywhere.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

His reading left listeners feeling a deep sense of reverence. David Bottoms described it well when he reviewed the poems, declaring Sowder \u201cknows that the secret message of poetry is connection, and . . . to turn inward\u00a0and find the spirit is also to discover the spirit moving through the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

To both writers, the deeply personal is universal. Their visit to Salt Lake City was a literary treat.<\/p>\n

CITY ART\u00a0presents weekly programs at the wonderful downtown Salt Lake City Library featuring invited readers.Next in the series:<\/p>\n

7pm Tuesday November 20: Michael Hansen and Tim Erickson<\/p>\n

7pm Wednesday December 5: Sian Griffiths and Melanie Rae Thon<\/p>\n

For more info see SLCityArt.org<\/a>
\n_______________________________________________<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Two extraordinary, Pushcart nominated, award-winning authors spoke last Wednesday in the latest installment from CITY ART. The reading series, held in the SLC Library fourth floor auditorium, is free and open to the public. Last night it featured Jennifer Sinor, Chair of Literature & Writing at Utah […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":848,"featured_media":14352,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_piecal_is_event":false,"_piecal_start_date":"","_piecal_end_date":"","_piecal_is_allday":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[1126],"class_list":["post-14346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-literary-arts","tag-city-art"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/SinorSowder.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-29 16:21:13","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/848"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14346"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14346\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54468,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14346\/revisions\/54468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artistsofutah.org\/15Bytes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}