Trinity College - eQuad November 14 issue

Clare Rossini Chosen as Connecticut Poetry Circuit Poet

Clare Rossini, visiting assistant professor of English, has been selected as the 2003-04 Connecticut Poetry Circuit Poet. In that role, she is “doing the circuit" by giving a series of readings at educational institutions across the state. Her readings include selections from her next book, Lingo, due out in the spring of 2005.

Rossini notes that the new collection contains some personal memory poems set in Hartford’s South End, where she and her husband, Associate Professor of Fine Arts Joe Byrne, first lived when they moved to the area three years ago. One series, “Gods of the South End,” includes poems in which Olympian gods are found working in various South End locations. “The Gods poems are light-hearted, kitch-y pieces,” the poet explains. “Not necessarily typical of my work, but they were a lot of fun to write.”

Rossini will read from her work at Central Connecticut State University on Tuesday, November 18, at 7:00 p.m. in the Marcus White Living Room on the CCSU campus in New Britain. She has thus far presented her work at Southern Connecticut State University, Wesleyan University, University of Connecticut-Storrs, University of Connecticut-Waterbury, Eastern Connecticut State University, and Manchester Community College. She is scheduled to read at Trinity on January 26, 2004, location TBD.

Rossini’s first full-length collection, Winter Morning with Crow, was selected for the l996 Akron Poetry Prize; the book went on to become a finalist for a Small Press Book Award and for PEN’s l999 Joyce Osterweil Award for Poetry. Her poems have appeared in numerous journals, including The Kenyon Review, The New England Review, and Poetry, as well as in textbooks and anthologies such as Poets for the New Century (David Godine: Boston, 2002), An Introduction to Poetry (ed. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia, Longman: New York, 2002), and Best American Poetry l997 (ed. James Tate, Scribners: New York, 1997). She has received fellowships from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, the Minnesota State Arts Board, and the Bush Foundation. In addition to her position at Trinity, Rossini teaches in the MFA program at Vermont College.

Rossini's poem, Venus, can be accessed by clicking here.

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