Lee University’s Department of Language and Literature hosted author Angela Narciso Torres over Zoom as the first guest of this year’s Writer’s Series.
"We are so glad that Angela Torres shared with us her love of poetry, her memories of growing up in the Philippines, and her experiences as a daughter and mother,” said Dr. William Woolfitt, associate professor of creative writing at Lee.
Ms. Torres read several of her poems to attendees including “Sundowning,” “If You Go to Bed Hungry,” and “Self Portrait as Revision” from her chapbook “To the Bone.” These poems all display memories she has of her mother, who passed away from Alzheimer’s.
“Being able to converse with Ms. Torres and listen to her share her poems was enlightening,” said Cana Cooper, Lee English student. “I was able to learn more about how she used poetic elements to not only interact with, but to enhance memory as she walked through moments with her mother through poems in her chapbook.”
She also shared poems from her book “Blood Orange,” which includes the poem, “The Foul Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart,” winner of the 2019 Yeats Poetry Prize.
Ms. Torres is a graduate of the Warren Wilson Master of Fine Arts Program for Writers and the Harvard Graduate School of Education. New City magazine named her one of Chicago's Lit 50 in 2016. Her recent work appears in publications such as POETRY, Missouri Review, Quarterly West, Cortland Review, and PANK.
Ms. Torres has received fellowships from Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, Illinois Arts Council, and Ragdale Foundation. She is on the conference faculty of the Palm Beach Poetry Festival in addition to serving as a senior and reviews editor for RHINO Poetry. She currently resides in southern Florida.
“Ms. Torres’s poems suggest to us ways that we might endure what she describes as ‘transitions, losses, and beginnings that are part of the ebb and flow of human experience,’” said Dr. Woolfitt.
The event concluded with a question and answer session where attendees asked Ms. Torres about her craft choices, writing style, and her history with writing.
The Writer’s Series will continue with novelist Annette Saunooke Clapsaddle on Feb. 24, 2021.
For more information on Ms. Torres, visit https://www.angelanarcisotorres.com/.
For more information on the Writer’s Series, contact Dr. Woolfitt at wwoolfitt@leeuniversity.edu.