Wesleyan Professor Among Country's Top Poetry Advocates

By Michael Hayes

Durham resident Suzanna Tamminen was recently named by the Huffington Post's Seth Abramson as one of the country's leading advocates for American poetry.

Tamminen, who serves as director and editor-in-chief of the Wesleyan University Press, is joined on the list of the Top 200 Advocates for American Poetry (2013) by Maya Angelou, Bob Dylan and Barack Obama.

Patch highlights the honor with a Q&A:

Patch: What does it mean to you to be included on the list?

Tamminen: I'm very honored to appear on a list with such cultural giants as Angelou and Dylan. I like that the list includes a wide variety of people who advocate for poetry in various ways—booksellers, publishers, critics, public reading series, as well as, of course, poets. 

Patch: How do you advocate for American poetry?

Tamminen: I am the director and editor-in-chief at Wesleyan University Press, which has been publishing poetry since the late 1950s and has published some of the most important poets of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including James Wright, Charles Wright, Donald Justice, Yusef Komunyakaa, Jean Valentine and Rae Armantrout. 

Patch: Is there someone on the list that you are particularly fond of, and why? 

Tamminen: Bill Murray. (Bill, if you're reading this, I know our web site is submission by invitation only. You are hereby invited.)

Patch: Like art, poetry can be intimidating because interpretation is not always easy. What advice would you give to someone who is having difficulty appreciating poetry? 

Tamminen: Don't worry about it. There are totally good, smart people who don't appreciate poetry. And also: There are as many kinds of poetry out there as there are people. I love all kinds of poetry, but probably my favorites are the poems that appeal to kids—Shel Silverstein and A. A. Milne. I grew up in a house where people recited Casey at the Bat, and poems by Robert Frost, and we made up limericks at the dinner table. I guess I would also tell someone that there are lots of ways to appreciate poetry—it's not all heady. Sometimes it's just fun with words and sometimes appreciating the headier stuff is as simple as letting let the music of someone's carefully chosen words transport you. 

Patch: Why Durham?

Tamminen: I moved to Connecticut in 1985 (just in time for Hurricane Gloria) and have lived in Durham for 8 years. Durham reminds me a lot of the town I grew up in, in Maine.