{"id":168780,"date":"2025-05-09T09:09:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T13:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/?p=168780"},"modified":"2025-05-13T10:20:26","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T14:20:26","slug":"bates-faculty-in-the-news-theri-pickens-debut-poetry-collection-gains-media-attention-and-sparks-a-busy-spring-on-and-off-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/2025\/05\/09\/bates-faculty-in-the-news-theri-pickens-debut-poetry-collection-gains-media-attention-and-sparks-a-busy-spring-on-and-off-campus\/","title":{"rendered":"Bates Faculty in the News: Ther\u00ed Pickens’ debut poetry collection gains media attention and sparks a busy spring, on and off campus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Charles A. Dana Professor of English and Africana Ther\u00ed Pickens\u2019 first volume of poetry, What Had Happened Was, <\/em>published by Duke University Press in March, was the subject of a two-page spread in Down East<\/em> magazine\u2019s April issue. Headlined “Well Versed,” the article included an interview with Pickens and a reprint of one of the poems in the collection, \u201cThe Amateur Gardener Considers a Time of Death.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pickens has had a busy spring. In conjunction with National Poetry Month, she appeared on Maine Public\u2019s Maine Calling<\/em> in April, as part of a panel of Maine poets discussing \u201cNew Directions\u201d in poetry<\/a> and visited several universities to give talks and readings, including Rutgers (as the Clement A. Price humanities scholar in residence), the University of North Carolina Charlotte, and the University of Virginia. On April 3, she was celebrated by faculty, staff, and students at a book party in Commons. She also recently gave interviews to the online publication The Adroit Journal<\/a><\/em> and The Cafe Review<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"women
At a gathering on campus on April 3, 2025, Charles A. Dana Professor of English and Africana Ther\u00ed Pickens reads from her debut collection of poetry, What Had Happened Was<\/em>, published by Duke University Press in March 2025 (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the Down East <\/em>story, journalist Michaela Cavallaro reports that Pickens’ debut collection “showcases a distinctive knack for synthesizing diverse influences.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She writes: \u201cPickens weaves together her academic training, her pop-culture interests, and her studies and experience of disability, among many other elements, in more than three dozen poems that are as readable as they are formally and linguistically inventive. Pickens traces her development as a poet all the way back to her New Jersey childhood (as a 5-year-old, she won a citywide writing contest for first to fourth graders on the subject of \u2018Why I\u2019m Proud to Be an African American\u2019).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Maine Calling<\/em> panel included Maya Williams, poet laureate of Portland, 2021\u201324, and Rose Lane, author of four poetry collections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pickens told listeners what prompts her to start writing a poem: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere’s usually some sort of music, some sort of thought, some sort of observation that scratches my temple from the inside of my head, so to say, this urgent thing that’s begging to be let out on paper. I tend to think of myself a little bit in the vein of observational comedians. They see things and observe them and observe their absurdity and then tell you about it…. I’m always really gratified when I find an audience, in part because audiences can come from all over. Matthew Zapruder once said that he has to trust that, because he’s having a human experience, other people also having human experiences will find his work when they need it. And so I think I operate in that trust as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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LISTEN<\/strong>: Hear Ther\u00ed Alyce Pickens read her poem If Lyndon B. Johnson hadn\u2019t had his heart attack<\/em> from the collection What Had Happened Was<\/em>. Copyright Duke University Press<\/a>, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At the campus gathering April 3, Pickens was interviewed on stage by moderator Samaa Abdurraqib, Ph.D., executive director of the Maine Humanities Council. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At the campus gathering April 3, Pickens read a selection of poems from What Had Happened Was<\/em> and was interviewed by moderator Samaa Abdurraqib, Ph.D., executive director of the Maine Humanities Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book party also offered an opportunity to recognize Pickens\u2019 recent appointment to an endowed professorship. In November 2024 the college announced<\/a> she would serve as Charles A. Dana Professor of English and Africana from 2024 through 2034. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Woman
Ther\u00ed Pickens makes an entrance to her book party for her first volume of poetry, What Had Happened Was<\/em>, at Bates on April 3. The event also doubled as an opportunity to celebrate Pickens being named to an endowed professorship. She’ll serve as a Charles A. Dana Professor of English and Africana until 2034. (Phyllis Graber Jensen\/Bates College<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Malcolm Hill, vice president for academic affairs and dean of the faculty, introduced Pickens at the packed gathering \u2014 which included an airing of pre-recorded messages of congratulations, accolades and gratitude from former colleagues across the country and many Bates graduates. Hill reminded the audience that the Dana Professorship is the first endowed chair established at Bates and recognizes professional excellence from professors working in any discipline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDr. Pickens\u2019 intersectional pathbreaking scholarship and pedagogy traverses the fields of race, identity and disability,\u201d Hill said, and went on to describe her writing across mediums as \u201cinventive, theoretically, and aesthetically attuned. She provides conceptual grammars and vocabularies that are of the present and for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cI would love it if folks could find something in the collection that resonated” \u2014 Ther\u00ed Alyce Pickens<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>

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In March, Pickens described her hopes and aspirations for the collection in an in-depth conversation<\/a> with poet Nefertiti Asanti in The Adroit Journal<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would love it if folks could find something in the collection that resonated and for folks looking to the collection, maybe for comfort?\u201d Pickens told Asanti. \u201cFolks looking to be read, in that, \u2018Black, queer reading is fundamental\u2019 kind of way, they could also find that. I don\u2019t want the focus to be on how I, as a poet, put something or anything really autobiographical into the text. But rather that it\u2019s a celebration of Black linguistic prowess and people can find something in it that speaks to them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For The Cafe Review <\/em>piece, Pickens was interviewed by a former Bates colleague, Jefferson Navicky, who asked about her \u201cwide-ranging and masterful\u201d use of poetic forms, including the villanelle, the haibun, and the sonnet. Pickens offered the insight that she uses these forms almost as guideposts, because even though she has been writing poetry since the age of 8, she still feels “like a beginning poet.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“So when I started practicing my craft in earnest in 2017, forms seemed like the best way to get into poetry…. They offer some degree of constraint, rules to follow, so that I don\u2019t get too lost. What began as a way to practice \u2014 and shout out to Kiese Laymon, who said, ‘We\u2019re not good enough to not practice’ \u2014 became more attractive once I saw other folks achieving loveliness with them.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dana Professor of English and Africana Ther\u00ed Pickens’ debut poetry collection earns praise in publications like Down East and The Adroit Journal as she shares her work through readings, panels, and an recent campus celebration in Commons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1283,"featured_media":168793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_hide_ai_chatbot":false,"_ai_chatbot_style":"","associated_faculty":["theri-pickens"],"_Page_Specific_Css":"","_bates_restrict_mod":false,"_table_of_contents_display":false,"_table_of_contents_location":"","_table_of_contents_disableSticky":false,"_is_featured":false,"footnotes":"","_bates_seo_meta_description":"","_bates_seo_block_robots":false,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_id":0,"_bates_seo_sharing_image_twitter_id":0,"_bates_seo_share_title":"","_bates_seo_canonical_overwrite":"","_bates_seo_twitter_template":""},"categories":[4,14,166],"tags":[11051,12362,8675],"class_list":["post-168780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-life","category-faculty-staff","category-humanities-history","tag-bates-in-the-news","tag-faculty-in-the-news","tag-theri-pickens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1283"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168780"}],"version-history":[{"count":40,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":169019,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168780\/revisions\/169019"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bates.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}