Kellogg Writers Series premieres
The Kellogg Writers Series opened its fall schedule by hosting poet Mark Turcotte in Good Recital Hall at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 6.
Turcotte, who said he has spoken at more than 400 invited readings, said this was his first time stopping in Indianapolis.
Turcotte was born in Lansing, Mich., but spent his formative years as a member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa at the Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota.
According to Turcotte, growing up on the reservation greatly impacted his poetry.
Turcotte has recently published a collection of poems in a book called “Exploding Chippewas,” which includes about 22 different poems all beginning with the phrase “Back when I used to be Indian.” Some of these poems include “Gravity,” “Visitation” and “Battlefield,” the last of which was written for his sister.
According to Turcotte, the “Back when I used to be Indian” concept came from a discussion he had with another Native American writer.
“He asked me about the scar on my lip, and I told him [that] like all my scars, I got it on the Rez [reservation]. And he said, ‘Oh yeah, yeah, back when you used to be Indian,’” Turcotte said. “And we laughed, then I thought, ‘Wait a minute, he just took a shot at me.’ So I stole that idea of ‘Back when I used to be Indian’ and wrote 22 poems that were published in literary journals all over America. And I can’t remember the last time I saw any of his poems anywhere.”
Turcotte has won numerous awards, including the first Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Poetry Award in 1993, a Writer’s Community Residency from National Writer’s Voice in 1997 and a 2001-2002 Lannan Foundation Literary Completion Grant.
Turcotte received his Master of Fine Arts degree in 2008 and went on to teach at DePaul University in Chicago, where he currently lives.
He considers himself lucky because he was accepted to a graduate school, even though he never completed a bachelor’s degree. He attributes this to the fact that he established himself as a writer before going back to school and had real-life experience in the field.
“It was weird being in a poetry workshop and I had more books [published] than my professors,” Turcotte said. “But I learned a ton, don’t get me wrong. I learned a lot.”
Turcotte read many of his poems throughout the evening.
The last poem he read, “Gethsemane,” was about his mother. This evoked his emotions, as well as the emotions of some audience members, who got teary-eyed while the poem was being read.
Junior creative writing and history major Linda Nicley enjoyed hearing Turcotte read his poems aloud.
“Hearing him recite the poems, I could hear and envision the Native American drums and chanting, and his voice provided that quality to the reading,” Nicley said. “His poem ‘Gethsemane’ brought me to tears, and it was just about cutting toenails—an old woman’s gnarly, thick old toenails at that. It’s a good poet who can do that to an audience.”
Associate Professor of English Elizabeth Weber was responsible for bringing Turcotte to campus as part of the Kellogg Writers Series.
“I found his explanations of his poems very interesting. This helped me understand his poetry better,” she said. “His last few poems, particularly the ones about his mother, ‘Waitress’ and ‘Gethsemane,’ were wonderful.”
According to Weber, one thing she factors in when making a decision about which writers to bring to campus is what courses are being taught at the time. This semester, a Native American Literature course is being taught, so she felt Turcotte would be an appropriate fit.
Weber believes bringing published authors to campus is a priceless opportunity for students.
“After an author comes to read his or her work on campus, I find the quality of my creative writing students’ work to improve in amazing ways,” she said.
The next Kellogg Writers Series event will be Nov. 10 at 7:30 p.m. in Good Recital Hall, when UIndy alumna Teresa Middleton will speak about her poetry.
