SUNY Canton Living Writers Series to Feature Syracuse Poet Christopher Brunt

An author who teaches creative writing and literature at Syracuse University will read from his just-released poetry collection at a SUNY Canton Living Writers Series “lunch and literature” event in November.

Alma Book Prize finalist Christopher Brunt will read from his brand-new work “War at Home,” at noon Monday, Nov. 4. in the Richard W. Miller Campus Center’s Woodcock Conference Suites (Rooms 212-214). This event is free and open to the public, and lunch and refreshments will be provided.

Released Oct. 15, the book’s poems are described as “allegories and fables of selves in crisis, and in the desperate throes of transformation. In flashes of lucid narrative or high-wire lyric inquiry, they seek to clarify the most urgent of personal truths out of the chaos and overflow of memory, out of secrecy and shame, out of wonder and mourning.”

Living Writers Series creator and Associate Professor Phil K. LaMarche said, “Chris Brunt's writing bridges humor and heartache with seamless ease. Fathers, sons, brothers and mothers all transcend the page and walk before us, waffling between their best and worst moments. We're lucky to have this new voice in American letters, and I hope you will join us to celebrate the release of “War at Home,” a striking new collection of poetry.”

Celebrated and bestselling author Mary Karr praised “War at Home” as “an astonishing debut” and “the sleeper hit poetry book of the season.” Karr is a two-time Living Writers Series alum.

Brunt’s poetry, fiction and essays have been featured in “Ploughshares,” “The Nation,” “Oxford American,” “Fugue,” “Meridian” and others. He was a finalist for the Saturnalia Book Award, the Marsh Hawk Poetry Prize and the St. Lawrence Book Award. He is also the creator and host of “Podre,” a podcast on fatherhood, recovery and the creative life.

For more information about the guest author, visit the Living Writers Series website.