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July 14 - Stellasue Lee, PhD, made a delightful presentation touching on a variety of subjects. We all learned more about writing and the passion one must have to persevere in this field of endeavor. She wanted to make a difference. She said she writes to touch the core within the reader. Poetry shares your emotional outlook, and liberates your speech. Good poems cause reflections. Dr. Lee noted our passion to touch the hearts of others, and had praise for our efforts.

This Ain't Your Grandmother's Poetry Reading August 8, 2009

6:45 PM at Grace Episcopal Church

5291 Main Street, Spring Hill, TN

Call 931-489-3223 for information. Light refreshments

Readers to be Stellasue Lee, Ph.D

and

Ramon Presson, author and marriage counselor  

  A Lively Poetry Event at Rippavilla Plantation

                                      and 

Ramon Presson, author and marriage counselor

Rippavilla welcomes Stellasue Lee and Ramon Presson for an evening of poetry June 20, 2009 beginning at 7:00 p.m. Lee will be reading from a new body of work, Firecracker Red, due to be released by the end of the year. “To have a poetry salon in this historic home is a privilege.”  Her book, Crossing The Double Yellow Line, February 2000, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Lee moved to Spring Hill with her husband, the artist Eric L. Hansen a year ago. She received her Ph.D. from Honolulu University . Now Editor Emeritus at RATTLE, a literary journal, she presently serves on the editorial board at Curbstone Press in Connecticut .

Ramon Presson, author of a dozen non-fiction books, readily confesses that his first love is poetry, an affection rewarded as a young adult with an Academy of American Poets prize. An enthusiastic student of Stellasue Lee, she says about her apprentice, “Ramon has a rare ability for language. His humor, tenderness, and intelligence all allow the reader to identify and stand beside him within the poem.” A firm believer that poetry can speak both with a deep voice and a mischievous grin, Presson will read from his collection, “The Twelve Steps for Poets Anonymous”.

For more information on the location, go to www.RippaVille.org

 Transplanted Pulitzer Poet Feels Right at Home

     “I’m from California. I know about earthquakes, not tornadoes.”   Understanding the difference between a tornado watch and a tornado warning is one of the few adjustments to Tennessee that Stellasue Lee has not made quickly.  The Pulitzer nominated poet and her husband Eric Hansen moved to Spring Hill in 2007 and the transplanting has been very smooth for the west coast native.                                                                                                                              
      “I think I had been trying to leave Los Angeles all my life. The first time we came to Nashville I woke to birds singing, to a clear sky without smog. I breathed in each day. The lush green of lawns and real trees and spacious pastures opened to me. I feel differently in Tennessee.”  But it wasn’t just the climate and inspiring landscape that impressed her.
     “We joined a small church in Spring Hill and people were happy to see us, welcomed us, made us feel part of the community whereas in Los Angeles, I would arrive late, sit in a corner, and leave early. I lived in the same house for 17 years in L.A. and once in a great while, I would see a neighbor and wave, but here, I've made friends, good friends of my neighbors. I can honestly say that I love them.”
      Writers can often lead a more isolated life and can even be reclusive, but Stellasue Lee is one of the most accessible authors you’ll meet. And if you live in Spring Hill long enough you’ll probably meet her. Not because she has time to just wander and mingle about town. This decorated poet, university instructor, and editor emeritus of one of the country’s most prestigious literary journals keeps a steady schedule of writing and teaching.  Over the years she has moved from teaching in the classroom to teaching students one-on-one all over the U.S. via phone and e-mail correspondence.
      “While I work out of my home writing and teaching students I've become a social butterfly. I've made more friends in one year than in all my life in California. I led a journaling workshop at the Maury County Library and I’d liked to offer more writing workshops like that. I've joined the Williamson County Arts Council and the Spring Hill Arts Council. I have this great desire to share with my community what I've spent a lifetime of studying to know and practice.” 
     Ramon Presson is one of those students, but he doesn’t live several states away, more like a few streets over. It’s a long story how they connected but they have developed quite a bond. Says Presson, an author and marriage and family therapist who lives in Thompson Station, “How often does a Pulitzer caliber writer move into your subdivision?  And one who gladly takes on individual students!  I feel incredibly blessed.  I have learned more in 9 months studying and writing with Stellasue than I have in the past 20 years of self-study and taking workshops.”
     A successful non-fiction author, Presson insists this is the most fun he’s ever had writing. “I started writing poetry as a young person and received some awards and publication. But when I began writing and publishing articles and books I seemed to lose my poetic voice. I wondered where the poet went and I doubted I’d ever get him back.”
      Stellasue certainly has reawakened the poet in Presson.  Says Ramon, “It’s not just that I’m writing poetry again, but I’m writing at a level I didn’t know I was capable of.”   And there’s no mistaking whom he credits for that blooming.  “I tell her that she is my Mr. Miyagi and I’m her Karate Kid. She is so knowledgeable of the craft of writing and so skilled at teaching. And so encouraging. Do you know how many writers would have me killed off so they could take my position here?”
     The master and the apprentice began looking for an opportunity to do a public reading together of a selection of their original poems.  Rippavilla Plantation was immediately charmed by the idea and is playing enthusiastic host to the ticketed event on Saturday evening June 20th.   Beginning at 7pm the duo will share the stage for a presentation called Firecracker Red, with refreshments and reception to follow. Tickets are $4 at the door and proceeds will go to the preservation efforts of Rippavilla Plantation.
      Says Stellasue, “There is a reason why this presentation is called Firecracker Red... it is going to be popping, crackling poems about life, love, marriage, children, struggle, and faith.”   Lee and Presson share a concern that poetry is often perceived as either sappy or impossible to understand. The pair is adamant that good poetry is accessible, that a high quality of writing should not soar over the heads of readers. Says Lee, “If the reader or listener doesn’t understand the poem, the writer has not done their job.”  Presson nods, “Henry Kissinger once said that if you’re famous and you bore people they think it’s their fault. I have little patience for poems and poets who presume the right to bore readers in the name of high art.”  The mischievous look on the faces of Lee and Presson suggest that this poetry event will be anything but boring.
     Stellasue relishes the opportunity to bring more attention to the literary arts in this region that is so rich in creativity. Mindful that she lives in the shadow of Music City, she is fond of reminding all that every songwriter is a poet first before they are a singer. Her eyes sparkle when she speaks of Spring Hill and writers in the same sentence and you can tell the wheels in her head are spinning with ideas. Says the star poet about middle Tennessee “This is not only home now, I feel like this was the place where I should have been born.”  It is safe to say that regardless of where Stellasue Lee should have been born, her adopted community is just glad she’s here now.

See samples of poetry at www.StellasueLee.com  and www.RamonDPresson.typepad.com