FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Aug. 1, 2003 #125
Contact: Michelle Hopkins
(816) 235-1592*
hopkinsml@umkc.edu
 

BkMk Press to Publish Terry Blackhawk's Escape Artist, an Award-Winning Poetry Collection That Uses Art and Memory to Free the Imagination

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- In September, BkMk Press at the University of Missouri-Kansas City will publish Escape Artist, Terry Blackhawk's latest poetry collection. Selected by poet Molly Peacock for the John Ciardi Prize for Poetry, Escape Artist uses art, myth and memory as a springboard for the imagination.

In this book, Blackhawk reminds readers of the connections to be made across both geographical distances and the decades of their lives. Together with reflections on her own experiences, Blackhawk delves into the minds of an array of characters -- from the mythical Odysseus to a native of Damascus circa 1965.

Blackhawk writes about her travels to various places, including Israel and Sweden and of such artists as Robert Rauschenberg, Marc Chagall and poet Emily Dickinson. Like the crow in the title poem, who just for a few seconds dangles "by its left foot upside down from a wire," this collection leaves the reader glad "to have looked at the world in a new way, to be leaving behind a dummy's point of view."

"Poems like these can sustain you," writes Molly Peacock, calling the book the "best poetry: multi-leveled, passionate, varied, thoughtful, intense, and beautiful." Poet Thomas Lynch agrees: "Memory and reverie, the solid here and now, the firmament of dreams -- she works these spaces with such perfect pitch, such manifest grace." Edward Hirsch, poet and president of the Guggenheim Foundation, calls Escape Artist "a fine new book of departures and returns, flights and transformations."

Blackhawk taught English and creative writing in Detroit public schools for almost 30 years. In 1995 she founded InsideOut, a writers-in-schools program serving students in Detroit's public schools. She also teaches at Oakland University in Rochester, Mich. Her teaching and her writing have earned multiple awards, including the Foley Poetry Award from America magazine, a National Endowment for the Humanities Teacher-Scholar Award, the Michigan Governor's Award in Arts Education, and a Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs Artist-in-residence grant.

Blackhawk has published poetry and nonfiction widely, including articles on storytelling, mythology, Emily Dickinson, and ekphrastic poetry (poetry inspired by visual art, as is much of Escape Artist). Her previous poetry collections are Body and Field and Trio: Voices From the Myths. She is a featured poet on the American Academy of Poets website (http://www.poets.org).

BkMk Press was founded in 1971 and became part of UMKC in 1983. Financial assistance for BkMk Press is provided by the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency, by UMKC, and by private donations.

Media review copies of Escape Artist can be requested by calling (816) 235-2558. For more information, contact Michelle Hopkins at (816) 235-1592.

The University of Missouri-Kansas City, established in 1963, has the following strategic goals: In 2006: We are a national leader in scholarship and creative activity; We attract, nurture, and develop responsible community leaders; We are an essential community partner and resource; We are a workplace of choice; and We have the resources to fuel our vision.

* Individuals with speech or hearing impairments may call Relay Missouri at (800) 735-2966 (TT) or (800) 735-2466 (voice).

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