Poet and writer presents works on student athletes
Writer Leslie Heywood spoke as part of the Kellogg Writers Series on April 2.
By Jaclyn Luscomb | Staff Writer
The University of Indianapolis recently hosted writer Leslie Heywood to speak as part of the Kellogg Writers Series. The April 2 lecture was arranged by Jennifer Drake, associate professor of English, who helped coedit Heywood’s book, Third Wave Agenda. Drake said she had many reasons to invite Heywood as the last speaker for this school year.
“The Kellogg Writers Series aims to bring both emerging writers and established writers to UIndy,” Drake said. “We want to support writers early in their careers, and we also want the UIndy community to have the chance to meet well-known writers. Each year we try to schedule a mix of the two.”
She also mentioned that Heywood was an old friend and colleague of hers.
“I’ve read her work in draft form over the years, and I’ve watched her writing and her career develop,” Drake said. “I thought that some of her favorite themes–the joy and pain of athletics, the pros and cons of competition, the pleasures and problematics of consumer culture, and how humans relate with animals and the natural world–would resonate with college students.”
Heywood’s poetry centered on the balance of school and athletics and the intense pressure a student athlete feels.
Drake said she believes that athletes and future writes have a lot to gain from Heywood’s writing.
“Leslie’s work definitely presents cautionary tales for athletes,” Drake said. “Her writing explains how a healthy, empowering involvement with sports and fitness can escalate into an unhealthy obsession with winning that can damage your body and your relationships.”
Heywood began the reading with a few poems about the pressures of being a talented athlete in a time when men still ruled the scholastic sports scene. She spoke about constantly wanting to be the best and how sports can be as addictive as cocaine. Heywood started writing about age eight, which was the same time that she started running.
“My method for writing is the same as the way I run,” Heywood said. “I start out going as fast and as far as I can and hope that no one catches me. It’s either on or off with me. Sometimes I write for 18 hours at a time if I’m on a roll.”
Heywood has published five books such as Natural Selection and The Proving Grounds, two collections of poems, Pretty Good For a Girl, Third Wave Agenda and Built to Win: The Female Athlete as a Cultural Icon. She is currently working on a memoir entitled The Wolf in the Albuquerque Hotel Room, which is the story of 11 years with her timber wolf hybrid dog named Fester.
Besides athletic themes, she also writes about environmental issues, consumer utilization, landscapes and her children.
The Allen and Helen Kellogg Writers Series brings talented writers that are nationally and internationally celebrated to campus for public readings. Each author invited to speak brings a different style and method of writing to the series. The readings are open to the public, free of charge and an opportunity for students to hear new and different literature that they may not discover on their own.
