As part of Fanfare’s month-long events, the Southeastern English department and the Writing Center collaborated to present “An Evening with Sheryl St. Germain” in the Student Union Theater on Wednesday, Oct. 13.
St. Germain, an alumnus of Southeastern, presented a reading of poetry from her collection titled “Let it Be a Dark Roux: New and Selected Poems.”
Prior to the event, there was a brief introduction by Dr. David Hanson, who serves as the head of the Southeastern English department.
Next, St. Germain took the stage and gave the audience additional information about herself. The first poem she read was titled “Going Home New Orleans,” a poem about returning to the place where St. Germain was born and raised.
After reading two more poems, she read a poem titled “Addiction.” The poem was dedicated to her deceased brother, Jay St. Germain, who died in 1981 from a drug addiction.
Following that poem, she read “Cajun,” a poem that talked about her Cajun heritage and the way the culture is viewed in the north. Following this, she read “Carnival (An Ode to New Orleans),” a poem that described the first Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The poem ended with the famous line “Throw me something, mister.”
The last poem she read was “A French Mosquito Defends Itself.” Afterwards, she read a brief excerpt from “After the Flood.”
Seth Thibodeaux, a freshman computer major, was one of many students present and has been reading St. Germain’s work in his English class.
“Attending the reading and hearing her speak was something I think benefited all the English students,” said Thibodeaux. “Hearing her read her work and talk about her inspiration really helped me to get a better understanding of her writing.”
Following the reading, St. Germain took questions from the audience. Some of the topics she addressed included her family, how her son struggled with an alcohol and drug addiction, how she began writing and what lead her to leave Louisiana.
“As I was listening to her read several of her poems, I knew the areas she was talking about,” said Jovanda Hall, a freshman elementary education major and New Orleans native. “The one about Mardi Gras after Hurricane Katrina was something I could visualize because I witnessed it myself.”
After taking questions from the audience, copies of “Let It Be a Dark Roux” were sold and signed in the lobby by St. Germain.
She is a native of New Orleans who has taught creative writing at five universities. Currently, she directs the master’s program in creative writing and teaches poetry and creative nonfiction at Chatham University in Pittsburg, Pa.
Over the years, she has received two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, which are awarded to published creative writers, a National Endowment for the Humanties Fellowship, the Dobie-Paisano Fellowship and the Ki Davis Award from the Aspen Writers Foundation. In addition, she also won the William Faulkner award for a personal essay she wrote.