REPORT TO THE ALABAMA WRITERS' CONCLAVE BUSINESS MEETING
AUGUST 1, 2003 BY THE POET LAUREATE NOMINATING COMMITTEE
BY UNANYMOUS agreement, it is our pleasure to nominate Sue Brannan Walker as the State of Alabama's next Poet Laureate to serve for the term 2003-2007. Dr. Walker resides in Mobile and exceeds the criterion for residing in Alabama for 15 consecutive years. She has agreed to serve and is willing to travel as required should she be elected.
Sue Brannan Walker is known nationally and internationally for her poetry, as well as for her critical articles on poets and writers such as James Dickey, Marge Piercy, Margaret Atwood, Carson McCullers, et. al.. As Editor and Publisher of Negative Capability, she has published numerous Alabama poets and writers, providing them a greater audience and some of them their first opportunity to be published. She has continued this work since 1981-a distinguished effort recognized by Writer's Digest when it ranked Negative Capability Third in the Nation in Poetry in the early 1990s out of approximately 2700 markets. In addition, her outstanding efforts were recognized when she was featured in Poet's Market (1999).
Her poetry is of the highest quality and has been published in an impressive array of prestigious publications including Aura, Black Willow, Blue Unicorn, Chattahoochee Review, Circus Maximus, Connecticut Review, Doggerel, Elk River Review, James Dickey Newsletter, Jabberwocky, Kalliope, Mobile Bay Monthly, The Alalitcom, The New York Quarterly, Piedmont Literary Review, Writer's Digest, and many, many others.
Her poetry, prose works, and community service have deservedly garnered numerous awards, grants, and fellowships. She has published five volumes of poetry with a sixth due out this Fall. Her latest collection is Blood Will Bear Your Name, which won Book of the Year from Alabama State Poetry Society and which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. This book was reviewed in both First Draft and Louisiana Literature.
She has long dedicated herself to poetry, literature, and the arts. As founder/ editor of Negative Capability she has served our community with distinction. Also, she has notably served as Advisory Editor for both The James Dickey Newsletter and The Anthology of New England Writers. She has maintained active memberships in numerous societies and associations (including honorary). Her memberships number in the dozens and include but are certainly not limited to:
President, James Dickey Society 2002
Executive Committee, Modern Language Association,
Disability Studies Section, 1998-2001
Academy of American Poets
National League of American Pen Women
National Women's Studies Association
Poetry Society of America
Poets and Writers Association of America
The Society for the Study of Southern Literature
Equally noteworthy is her service to the University of South Alabama as Chair of the English Department and her involvement on an array of committees. Her academic experience and her classes in creative writing and literature are imposing. Among many subjects, she teaches Advanced Poetry Writing at the graduate level. The range of her peer reviewed, solicited articles is extraordinary. Her play, her fiction, her musical recording-all confirm her versatility in the arts and an outstanding level of involvement and dedication.
The list of her readings, talks, addresses, papers given, lectures, and workshops speaks for itself (and is more than three pages long and single-spaced!). She is exceedingly qualified in the area of speaking, reading poems, and giving programs.
Her ability to write poems of a commemorative nature is undeniable. We who heard her read "What Comes of Listening" at the Alabama State Poetry Society luncheon at Montevallo in April 2001 remember that poem (written especially for the occasion), and her fluid, dramatic reading, as truly unforgettable. For the record, she also teaches a segment on "occasional verse" in her Advanced Poetry class at the University of South Alabama.
Dr. Walker's current works in progress include:
1. A study of Deep ecology in James Dickey's work
2. A novel on the 1878 yellow fever epidemic in Mobile, Alabama
3. A biography of Jefferson Davis in sonnets
4. Work on Flannery O'Connor and Kate Chopin
Sue Brannan Walker is a distinguished poet and is uniquely qualified to fill the position of Poet Laureate of Alabama.
Respectfully,
Poet Laureate of Alabama Nominating Committee
Donna Jean Tennis, Chairperson
Evelyn Hurley
Barry Marks
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