Winners of the Wallace Stevens Poetry Prize gave a reading of selected poems at the Austin Building’s Stern Lounge on April 10.
The Wallace Stevens Poetry Prize is an annual contest held for University of Connecticut students, named after the modernist poet who resided in Hartford. This year was the 59th reading event for the program.
Aidan Wood, a graduate student in mathematics who placed third and won $500, read first. He was introduced by Darcie Dennigan, an English professor at UConn who worked with him in creative writing workshops.
Wood read a variety of poems, ranging in topics and severity. He did not preface most of them, opting to let his vulnerable descriptions and emphatic performance speak for itself.
One of the more emotional and complex poems was “desire is a dysmorphia-ism,” a poignant reflection on relationships. Wood made use of a repetitive structure, with multiple stanzas starting with “I coin the phrase ‘Your Goal,’” to foster the sense of contemplation.
“Tulsa, Call it Love” was one of Wood’s more dramatic readings. His cadence rose and fell with urgency as the lines navigated different places in the city. At one point, he broke into a brief song, which drew some laughter from the audience.
One of the last poems Wood read was “The Hosts,” where he summons sparse and explicit imagery involving outdoor activities spent with someone. The poem will be featured in the print edition of the “Long River Review,” UConn’s undergraduate literary magazine.
After Wood’s reading, Bruce Cohen, a UConn English professor, humorously introduced Charlotte Ungar, an eighth-semester English major. She tied for first place and won $500.
Ungar read six poems and provided some background about the subject and inspiration for each.
Ungar first read “Collision,” a poem about her experience visiting Italy with her mother. While there, they would pass empty churches with her mom insisting to sit in them. Ungar’s words glided through her thinking with a dreamlike progression and solemn imagery.
“Blueberries” was one of Ungar’s shorter poems, written about time spent with friends in Connecticut during the summer. The abundance of bright imagery and calculated arrangement fostered a tranquil atmosphere.
The stillness of “Blueberries” was gently flipped on its head with Ungar’s final poem, “Most Days,” about her experiences in New York. The sense of movement and urban environment assumed a gentler and more forgiving complexion with her rich meditation and measured reading.
Once Ungar finished, Dennigan stepped up to introduce Miranda Argyros, a graduate English student, who also tied for first place and won $500. The poems she read were among the first and only ones she has written.
Argyros began with “A maiden with a calla lily,” which she prefaced by explaining its connection with Charlotte Perkins Gilman advertising trade cards and music artist Neil Young. She narrates a seemingly declining relationship and how we try finding solace in these moments. It culminates in a greater realization of what gets lost as life goes on, but Argyros highlights the beauty and relief brought by that awareness.
Soon after, Argyros read a series of three connected poems. The first, “Priest’s Son Gets Cross On Epiphany,” was a retelling and deeper exploration of her uncle’s teenage experience in a Greek Orthodox tradition, where he seized a cross thrown by a priest into freezing Long Island waters before anyone else. Argyros then read two erasure poems, also known as blackout poetry, that she derived from her original poem, one titled “Priest’s Son” and the other “Epiphany,” each bursting with new meaning.
After the readings, Dennigan offered some parting words before the audience of over 20 people had refreshments and talked with the contest winners.
Ella Raath, a copy editor at the Daily Campus and an eighth-semester English and philosophy major, enjoyed getting to hear the poems aloud. She had read “The Hosts” beforehand but said Wood’s reading gave it more power.
“It felt like a completely different experience, hearing it, so I felt like I got a different interpretation,” Raath said.
Raath is a member of the poetry panel for the “Long River Review,” and read through hundreds of poems over winter break to curate a selection for publication. She reflected on whether hearing the poems aloud would have changed her decisions.
“I feel like if I heard them in person, I would have a completely different take,” Raath said. “But I think that’s a good thing, and I think that’s why poetry’s so interpretive.”
Select poems from the prize winners will be published in the print edition of the upcoming “Long River Review” or on its website in early May.