Gwyneth Lewis reads poetry, offers advice

Gwyneth Lewis, the National Poet of Wales from 2005-2006 and the first writer to be given the Welsh laureateship, spoke in Gilman Hall on Tuesday as part of the Writing Seminars Department’s Turnbull Lecture series.

Lewis has published eight books of poetry in both Welsh and English, including her most recent book, Sparrow Tree. She has also won many awards, including the Eric Gregory Award and Aldeburgh Poetry Festival Prize.

“Poetry in any language usually doesn’t matter much, unless it is pursued with keen attention, a musical ear and its own strange brand of truthfulness,” Mary Jo Salter, co-chair of the Writing Seminars Department, said. “These qualities Gwyneth Lewis’ poems have in abundance,”

Salter began this Turnbull Lecture with the history of the lecture series and briefly spoke about Lewis’s published works and accomplishments.

Before reciting her poems, Lewis discussed the background and story of each one.

“Often, [a Turnbull Lecture is] more of a scholarly lecture, but today, instead of having a lecture, we had a reading,” Amanda Gunn, a Writing Seminars graduate student coordinator, said.

Although Lewis didn’t speak at length about her own life throughout the lecture, she mentioned particular moments that gave her inspiration in writing some of her poems. One poem she read was an epic titled, “A Hospital Odyssey.”

“I started writing when I was seven,” Lewis said. “It came like a boat out of the blue. It must have been raining outside... I wrote an epic about the rain. It wasn’t very long, but for a first attempt, it was long, and it rhymed. I’ve been wanting to write a long poem for a long time, so I did attempt it a few years ago.”

Lewis also gave advice to inspiring poets and writers.

“Whenever you’re attempting anything... it’s not possible, I think, to do anything on your own as a writer,” Lewis said. “You have to do it in the company of other writers. Even though you’re physically alone, you’re never mentally alone because language is a network.”

After the reading, there was a reception and a book signing in the Gilman Atrium.

Many undergraduate students, especially students taking Introduction to Fiction and Poetry (IFP) courses, attended the lecture.

“This is the first Turnbull lecture I’ve been to, and I had to come here for [IFP], but I actually really enjoyed it,” freshman Writing Seminars major Grace Von Ohlen said.

Many Writing Seminars graduate students attended the lecture as well.

“I really liked the [poem] about the death of Welsh from the point of view of the poet,” Writing Seminars graduate student Joey Frantz said.

This was Lewis’s first visit to Hopkins.

“Johns Hopkins is amazing, and I’m really thrilled to be in Baltimore... It’s a big industrial port with a big park, so I’m really pleased to be here. I’ve had a great time,” Lewis said.

The next Turnbull Lecture will be held on Feb. 3, 2015 and will feature Denis Donoghue, a former English professor from New York University and one of the world’s leading scholars on Irish literature. Donoghue has also written extensively on the practice of reading.

According to the Writing Seminars Department’s website, the Turnbull Lecture series was established in memoriam of Percy Graeme Turnbull, a member of a prominent Baltimore family with literary connections. After Turnbull passed away at the age of nine in 1887, the family began donating money for the University to fund visits of scholars and poets in their son’s honor.