December 30, 2019
West Virginia Poet Laureate Marc Harshman joins Katy Giebenhain for a conversation about writing and reading and the iconic influences on both from Falling Water and the Asphodel Bookshop. Harshman holds degrees from Bethany College, Yale Divinity School, and the University of Pittsburgh. He is the author of 14 children’s books including The Storm, a Smithsonian Notable Book, and eight collections of poetry including his latest, Woman in Red Anorak, Lynx House Press/University of Washington. He is, most recently, co-winner of the 2019 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Award.
Many thanks to our host site for this interview, Waldo’s and Co. on the Square in Gettysburg and Facebook
December 3, 2018
Carla Christopher, a student at United Lutheran Seminary and a former Poet Laureate of York, Pennsylvania, talks about how we can have difficult conversations around challenging topics by creating a safe space where people can engage with one another and feel safe to be human. Conversations about race, diversity, and a gender can be difficult, but there are resources available to help any group or organization, no matter how small, to begin to share their life experiences with one another.
Learn more about Carla at carlachristopher.com and communityartsink.org.
November 5, 2018
Gettysburg National Military Park artist-in-residence Rick Stark reflects on who we choose to memorialize, contemporary and Civil War poetry, moral injury, nature and what it is like to be a military veteran living on the Battlefield for four weeks which include the famous first week of July.
Rick Stark and Chris Lauer examine hand made paper for Rick's poetry.
July 2, 2018
Rev. Dr. Mark Oldenburg, Professor of the Art of Worship, Dean of the Chapel, United Lutheran Seminary (Gettysburg), and hymn writer refutes the notion that good hymns aren’t written anymore and cites numerous resources online and in print. Recent hymnody has been enriched by music from the southern U.S. and by “world music” (especially Africa). He plays and discusses two examples of his own hymns, the first of which was declared the best new hymn of 1988.
![From the Desert to the Peach Orchard]()
February 26, 2018
During her residency, Tucson-based writer Julie Swarstad Johnson will be working on poems inspired by stories of pacifist faith communities around Gettysburg before, during and after the time of the battle, with a particular focus on the experiences of the Sherfy family (owners of the Peach Orchard). Her own practice as a member of Mennonite and Quaker congregations will add perspective to the historical role these communities. It is an opportunity to understand examples of pacifism and faith in American public life. She took time from her research, writing and explorations for a conversation with Katy Giebenhain about her project. The author of Jumping the Pit by Finishing Line Press, Swarstad Johnson is a Library Specialist at the University of Arizona Poetry Center.
Julie Swarstad Johnson will give a free public poetry reading March 3rd at the Gettysburg NMP Museum and Visitor Center at 3:00 p.m.
The event is sponsored by a grant from the Gettysburg Foundation and other generous sponsors. For more information about the event call 717-334-1124.
Thanks to our host site for this interview, Waldo’s and Co. on the square in Gettysburg.
January 1, 2018
Social-justice poet Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo is the first “Poets in the Park” artist-in-residence at the Gettysburg National Military Park. She stopped by the Gettysburg campus of United Lutheran Seminary for a conversation about her evolving collection, her experience as a desert aid worker on the U.S.-Mexico border, hobo markings, Tarot card prompts and more.
June 20, 2016
Author Gary Fincke talks with Katy Giebenhain about the work of writing. His poems have appeared in Seminary Ridge Review and many other journals. He is an award-winning writer of short fiction, nonfiction and poetry (30 books and counting). Gary Fincke is the Charles Degenstein Professor of Creative Writing at Susquehanna University. He was in town for a poetry reading in Gettysburg’s First Friday series.
For more information about Gary visit:
March 28, 2016
Dr. Robert Randolph, the 2015 minister-in-residence at
Gettysburg Seminary spent a week on campus this fall. He is an award-winning
poet, pastor of a Presbyterian church and Chair of the English and Foreign
Languages Department at Waynesburg University in Waynesburg, PA.
For more information on his publications visit: http://elixirpress.com/
February 1, 2016
Seminary Ridge Review’s Poetry + Theology editor Katy Giebenhain joins the Anglo-Welsh poet Tony Curtis for a conversation about war poetry. The emeritus professor of poetry at University of South Wales was on a visit to the Gettysburg Battlefield and Seminary Ridge Museum in-between other events in the U.S. Curtis is a Fellow of the Royal Society for Literature and the Welsh Academy of Writers and the author of more than 30 books.
