Steven Reese
Poetry | Youngstown State University
Contact
Phone | (330) 941-1650
Email | screese@ysu.edu
Recent Publications
BOOKS
Excentrica: Notes on the Text. BlazeVOX, 2017.
American Dervish. Salmon Press, 2013.
Synergos: Selected Poems of Roberto Manzano (As translator). Etruscan Press, 2009.
Enough Light to Steer By. Cleveland State University Poetry Center, 1997.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
“The Minotaur and the Maps.” Lake Effect (forthcoming), Poetry.
“In Translation” and “The Minotaur, Stuck in His Head Again.” Innisfree Poetry Journal 27, Poetry.
“Ars Titanica.” Riddled with Arrows 2.2, July 2018, Poetry.
“Meditation at Babel.” Gyroscope Review, Summer 2018, Poetry.
“Looking for Lorca.” Panorama: The Journal of Intelligent Travel no. 5, 2018, nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Essay.
About Steven
Steven Reese teaches literature and poetry writing at Youngstown State. His poems and translations have appeared widely in journals such as Poetry Northwest, West Branch, and Asheville Poetry Review. He is the author of two collections of poems: Enough Light to Steer By (CSU Press) and American Dervish (Salmon Press, Ireland), and a selection of his poems translated into Spanish has been published in Cuba, entitled Andando bajo el rumbo de la luz (Arte y Literatura Press). As translator he has published two collections of poems: Synergos: Selected Poems of Roberto Manzano (Etruscan Press) and Womanlands, selected poems of Diana María Ivizate González ( Verbum Press, Spain).
Where did you grow up?
Ithaca, NY.
What is one of your favorite places in Youngstown?
Mill Creek Park in Youngstown—gorgeous.
Your most awkward moment with a famous writer?
As a graduate student at Delaware I was in charge of recording Seamus Heany’s reading there on a reel-to-reel tape player. I neglected to secure one of the reels and it came off mid-reading and rolled about twenty feet toward the door. I had to run down and wind it back up and put it back on the machine, under the mirthful gaze of Mr. Heaney.
What’s on your nightstand right now?
A glass of water, a box of tissues, a small clock, a mouthguard. I
assume the question was about books, but I never read in bed.
What’s your preferred method for eating a cupcake?
The bottom half is detached and placed on top, on the icing,
creating a kind of cupcake sandwich.
Your craziest/most interesting teacher?
Had many great/eccentric ones, but I’ll say Karl Patten, Bucknell University. I’d run half the way home from his Joyce seminar, just hopped up on thinking. He would take a big drag on his menthol and start talking, and the whole time he spoke, smoke came drifting out of his face.
What is your AWP advice to a first-time attendee?
Find a good bar that is NOT the main hotel’s. Don’t let the book fair get to you. Go to things, but also get out and take your damn badge off.
Are you pro experimental forms of creating writing or against them—meaning the uses of em dashes, hyphens, ampersands, no punctuation, and so forth? Explain.
Pro—why limit what’s in the toolbox? I don’t use them much myself, but I’m glad people do.
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English Department
Kent State University
P.O. Box 5190
Kent, Ohio 44242