Biography

Jack B. Bedell is a professor of English and Coordinator of Creative Writing at Southeastern Louisiana University where he also edits Louisiana Literature and directs the Louisiana Literature Press. Bedell’s work has appeared in HAD, Pidgeonholes, The Shore, Okay Donkey, EcoTheo, Heavy Feather, Cheap Pop, and other journals. His latest collection is Against the Woods’ Dark Trunks. He served as Louisiana Poet Laureate 2017-2019.

Schedule

2:00 pm to 3:00 pm
State Library, Fifth Floor, Capitol View Room
The Louisiana Poet Laureate Presents Louisiana Poets, Part 2
with Jack B. Bedell, Randy Gonzales, Biljana Obradović, Karisma Price, Dave Smith, and Louisiana Poet Laureate Alison Pelegrin

3:15 pm to 4:00 pm
Cavalier House Books Tent
Book Signing

Against the Woods' Dark Trunks: Poems

The poems in Against the Woods' Dark Trunks stare deep into the shadows of Jack Bedell's native South Louisiana swamp to find ghosts, monsters, death, and flood waters. These poems also look hard enough to find cypress trees reaching up for whatever sunlight is left in the sky, and they see the promise of new growth along the water's edge. Every folktale and campfire fright here has a family story, the sparkling magic of a daughter's dreams, open fields, and jazz melodies to tilt these poems' scales toward hope. Even in the darkest of memories, the most broken of hearts, and the longest of long days, there is grace to be found. Line by line, these poems dig for it.