2008 Woodie Awards
Judy Jordan at Guilford
Ben Dedman
Issue date: 4/6/07 Section: Features
Judy Jordan returned to her native North Carolina to deliver award-winning poetry and inspirational messages to Greensboro students.
Jordan gave two poetry readings last week, on Wednesday, March 28, at the UNCG faculty center and Thursday, March 29, in the Founders Gallery. Both readings were followed by book signings. Jordan also attended a poetry workshop at UNCG on Wednesday and a tea-and-talk meeting, funded by Guilford's Women's Studies program, at the Greenleaf on Thursday.
Assistant Professor of English Heather Hayton met Jordan at California State University - San Marcos in 2000-2001, while serving on a committee that hired Jordan as a faculty member. Hayton worked alongside the UNCG Creative Writing Department and Vice President for Academic Affairs and Academic Dean Adrienne Israel to get the readings funded.
Hayton introduced Jordan to the audience at Thursday night's reading, saying, "I find her to be one of the truest, kindest persons, filled with the most integrity that I've met in my whole life. Her passion just continues to inspire me and her poems have made me a much better person just for the reading of them … Her first book, 'Carolina Ghost Woods,' was honored with several national and state awards, and it remains one of the most amazing texts I have ever read."
Jordan began the Thursday night reading with poems from "Carolina Ghost Woods," which includes autobiographical accounts of growing up in a family of poor sharecroppers in Marshville, N.C., about 125 miles from Greensboro near the North Carolina/South Carolina border. She warmly refers to it as "The hometown of Randy Travis."
"I spent three years entering ('Carolina Ghost Woods') into, and not winning, first book contests," Jordan said, "but then it won the Walt Whitman, which is considered the biggest, most important first book contest in the country. It was the one book chosen out of 1,369 entries. Then, it went on to win the National Book Critics Circle Award, a prize right up there with the Pulitzer and National Book Award. So perseverance and hope are good for something."
Jordan gave two poetry readings last week, on Wednesday, March 28, at the UNCG faculty center and Thursday, March 29, in the Founders Gallery. Both readings were followed by book signings. Jordan also attended a poetry workshop at UNCG on Wednesday and a tea-and-talk meeting, funded by Guilford's Women's Studies program, at the Greenleaf on Thursday.
Assistant Professor of English Heather Hayton met Jordan at California State University - San Marcos in 2000-2001, while serving on a committee that hired Jordan as a faculty member. Hayton worked alongside the UNCG Creative Writing Department and Vice President for Academic Affairs and Academic Dean Adrienne Israel to get the readings funded.
Hayton introduced Jordan to the audience at Thursday night's reading, saying, "I find her to be one of the truest, kindest persons, filled with the most integrity that I've met in my whole life. Her passion just continues to inspire me and her poems have made me a much better person just for the reading of them … Her first book, 'Carolina Ghost Woods,' was honored with several national and state awards, and it remains one of the most amazing texts I have ever read."
Jordan began the Thursday night reading with poems from "Carolina Ghost Woods," which includes autobiographical accounts of growing up in a family of poor sharecroppers in Marshville, N.C., about 125 miles from Greensboro near the North Carolina/South Carolina border. She warmly refers to it as "The hometown of Randy Travis."
"I spent three years entering ('Carolina Ghost Woods') into, and not winning, first book contests," Jordan said, "but then it won the Walt Whitman, which is considered the biggest, most important first book contest in the country. It was the one book chosen out of 1,369 entries. Then, it went on to win the National Book Critics Circle Award, a prize right up there with the Pulitzer and National Book Award. So perseverance and hope are good for something."
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Pam
posted 1/19/08 @ 9:23 AM EST
Thanks for the review of her reading. I have read Carolina Ghost Woods many time and each visit finds something new and interesting (see review of the book at my blog. (Continued…)
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