Poet MJ Iuppa joins me in the studio to discuss her latest collection of poems, a meditation on nature, art, and our relationships. The collection is rich with longing and stark imagery, poems of longing and memory. MJ also shares some poems from the collection.
About MJ Iuppa:
M.J. Iuppa is the Director of the Visual and Performing Arts Minor Program, Writer-in-Residence (1999-2015) and Lecturer in Creative Writing at St. John Fisher College; and since 2000 to present, a part time lecturer in Creative Writing at The College at Brockport. Since 1986, she has been a teaching artist, working with students, K-12, in Rochester, NY, and surrounding area. She has three full length poetry collections, most recently Small Worlds Floating as well as Within Reach both from Cherry Grove Collections, 2010) Night Traveler (Foothills Publishing, 2003)); and 5 chapbooks, most recent is Between Worlds (Foothills Publishing, 2013), which is a collection of lyric essays, flash fiction and prose poems. She received Writers and Books' The Big Pencil Award, honoring her lifelong contributions to Rochester's Literary Community. At St. John Fisher College, she has received the Part-Time Faculty Award for Teaching Excellence, May 2000; The Father Dorsey Award, 2000-2001 and 2002-2003, and a Certification of Recognition from The Monroe County Legislature, April 2003. She served as the poetry advisor for New York State Foundation for the Arts, 2007-2012. She and her husband Peter Tonery lives on a small farm in Hamlin NY, where they have been practicing organic food sustainability for the past 15 years.