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Grammar is metaphor in new poems by EimersFeb. 6, 2006 KALAMAZOO--"A Grammar to Waking," a newly published collection of 38 poems by Dr. Nancy Eimers of Western Michigan University, is available through Kalamazoo-area retailers and major online booksellers. The unifying theme of the new 86-page collection is "grammar as a metaphor for the ways we articulate meaning in our lives," says Eimers. "I became obsessed with the principals of grammar and increasingly aware of how we 'write all over everything' in our world." Initially, Eimers took her obsession literally, noting the burgeoning number and variety of signs, symbols and printed words omnipresent in modern America. She spent more than three years working on the poems in "A Grammar to Waking" and eventually began to reflect on how, "We write all over everything, even without using words." Eimers cites the example of seeing a new housing development being built along what was previously a natural wooded ridge. "Some of the poems are celebratory and some lament changing landscapes," says Eimers. "The ways we 'write' on the world can be both moving and troubling--art, graffiti, shopping malls, billboards." Eimers is the author of two previous collections of poetry, "Destroying Angel," published in 1991, and "No Moon," published in 1997. The latter was chosen by Ellen Bryant Voigt as winner of the Verna Emery Prize. Eimers has been the recipient of a Nation "Discovery" award, two National Endowment for the Arts Creative Writing fellowships and a 1998 Whiting Writers Award. Her poems have appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines, including The Extraordinary Tide: New Poetry By American Women, Best American Poetry 1996, Poets of the New Century, The New Bread Loaf Anthology of Contemporary American Poetry, Paris Review, TriQuarterly, Field and Poetry Northwest. A professor of English, Eimers teaches creative writing at WMU. She earned her undergraduate degree from the University of Iowa, a master's degree from Indiana University, a master of fine arts degree from the University of Arizona, and her doctorate from the University of Houston. Published by Carnegie Mellon University Press, "A Grammar to Waking" is available locally through Kazoo Books and the gift shop of the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts and online through barnesandnobel.com and other major outlets. Related story Media contact: Thom Myers, (269) 387-8400, thom.myers@wmich.edu WMU News |
