I am a poet and retired librarian who lives in Austin, Texas with my partner of fourteen years, David Meischen, also a writer, our indoor cats Silver and Tawny, and our outdoor cats, MJ and Blondie. We’re a typical American household–at least in my circle of friends. We live in a wonderful 1940′s home among many oak and pecan trees in Wilshire Wood, close to both downtown Austin and the University of Texas.
I am the author of two books, Presence (Pecan Grove Press, 2011) and Vegetables and Other Relationships (Plain View Press, 2000). I am also the lead editor for Dos Gatos Press, publisher of the annual Texas Poetry Calendar, now entering its fifteenth year! In recent years, we have expanded our scope into additional publishing ventures, including an anthology, Big Land, Big Sky, Big Hair: Best of the Texas Poetry Calendar; an original book of poetry by Texas Poet Laureate Karla K. Morton, Redefining Beauty; and a collection of writing exercises, Wingbeats: Exercises and Practices in Poetry.
Here’s what some of my favorite poets have to say about Presence:
Laurie Kutchins, Pulitzer-nominated author of The Night Path, says, “Presence evokes the elements–palpable qualities of air, earth, water and fire, and more–the difficult-to-render textures of familial love, lovers, loss, renewal, memory, and what one needs to stay present to the elemental world. So many moments in Wiggerman’s poems ‘evaporate like broth into essence,’ allowing us to feel absence become presence. And as the poet wisely notes, ‘the juxtaposition is seamless.”
Cyrus Cassells, Lambda award-winning author of Beautiful Signor states, “In Presence, Scott Wiggerman uses an intransigent stain as an emblem of buoyant integrity in the face of intolerance and exclusion. In this new book, nimbly arranged by the elements, the poet, brandishing his trademark sass, humor, and candor, glories in local nature and limns the joys and trials of being a lovingly irreverent Texas gadfly, a proud and forthright gay man.”
And Robert McDowell, author of the best-selling Poetry as Spiritual Practice, writes, “In Presence, we meet, in the poet’s own words, ‘the drumming of a buoyant heart.’ It is a sound that will not defer to injustice. It is an intelligent and artful yawp that won’t go quietly. It is a witnessing we need to hear in a world so full of babbling and duplicity. It’s the sound of truth itself . . . . Through it all, Wiggerman’s marvelous craft gives shape to his versatility and poignant insight. He is a must-read American poet. Share him with everyone you know who cares about words and the truth.”
Copies are available from me at http://swig.tripod.com.
Wingbeats, which poet Ravi Shankar describes as “indispensable to teaching creative writing,” is a collection of sixty-one poetry writing exercises by fifty-eight poets who teach, including Wendy Barker, Ellen Bass, Tara Betts, Nathan Brown, Lisa D. Chavez, Oliver de la Paz, Annie Finch, David Kirby, Harryette Mullen, Hoa Nguyen, Patricia Smith, Afaa Weaver, Matthew Zapruder, and many others. Each exercise includes one or more poems that showcase the exercise in action. You’ll want to try them all—from “Meeting Your Muse” to “Three-Day Defamiliarization,” from “A Walking Petrarchan Sonnet” to “A Crack in the Cup.” Test yourself with Bruce Covey’s “Two Sides of the Same Coil: Google Sculpting and Automatism.” Push sentence limits with William Wenthe’s “Stretching the Sentence.” Try a collaborative exercise. Learn new approaches to revision.
I will be reading from Presence at the AWP Conference in Chicago, Feb. 9-March 3, 2012, and Dos Gatos Press will have a table there, where Wingbeats will be for sale (you can also order a copy of Wingbeats or other Dos Gatos Press books at http://www.dosgatospress.org/thestore. Please stop by our table (Q11) and say hello!
