Humanities Center Hosts Poet Jesse Nissim April 4

Nissim known for “innovative original language”

The Faculty Fellow Series of The Syracuse University Humanities Center continues with a poetry reading by Jesse Nissim. A faculty fellow in the humanities, she will read original selections on Thursday, April 4, at 6 p.m. in Room 304 of the Tolley Humanities Building. Joining her will be respondent Patrick Williams, an associate librarian at SU.

The event is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the SU Humanities Center, which is administered by The College of Arts and Sciences. For more information, contact program coordinator Karen Ortega at 315-443-5708 or kmortega@syr.edu.

“Jesse Nissim is an exciting and original poet,” says Gregg Lambert, Dean’s Professor of the Humanities and founding director of the SU Humanities Center. “Her interest in contemporary poetic form has produced a body of work that is both exhilarating and experimental. Anyone with a passion for innovative original language is sure to be inspired.”

Nissim is the author of three poetry chapbooks: “Day Cracks Between the Bones of the Foot” (Furniture Press Books, 2013), “Self Made Body” (Finishing Line Press, 2012) and “Alphabet for M” (Dancing Girl Press, 2007). She has also earned considerable acclaim for her book manuscript, “Diagram for the Dream of Flight,” which was a finalist in the National Poetry Series’ 2011 Open Competition and was a semi-finalist and runner-up in the Cleveland State University Poetry Center First Book Prize in 2010 and 2008, respectively. Her work has appeared in numerous literary anthologies and journals, including SU’s Stone Canoe.

Prior to SU, Nissim resided in California, where she taught at the University of California, Berkeley; the California College of the Arts; Diablo Valley College; and San Francisco State University, where she earned an M.F.A. in creative writing in 2005. Much of her research spans contemporary poetry and poetics, documentary methods in poetry, chance operations and poetic experiments, and the process of writing.

In her appraisal of “Self Made Body,” award-winning poet Heather Christle was struck by Nissim’s attention to detail. “There is so much to discover here, thanks to Nissim’s astute … and particular eyes,” she writes.

“HC faculty fellows have the unique opportunity to bring their research to bear on students and faculty from across campus, while engaging with colleagues and outside experts. These events nicely complement Syracuse Symposium, which we organize and present every fall for The College of Arts and Sciences,” says Lambert.