Getting started!
I’m new to these pages, so before I start posting, I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. I’m Ed Madden, an associate professor of English, and I’m joining these pages as a writer. I’m excited to join Joe and Blake here, and to add a literary voice to this site. My first book of poetry, Signals, will be published this spring. I also direct a writing workshop called the First Book Project, where writers from USC and the community get together to work on first manuscripts. I’ll be writing about my experiences in this process of getting a first book published.
I’ll also be writing about some of the community writing workshops I work with as part of the Split P Soup creative writing program. Founded by Ray McManus, Split P Soup connects USC writers with school and community workshop opportunities. I’ve been working with the Palmetto Center for the Arts (PCA) at Richland Northeast High School this year, and Split P folks have a number of one-time events throughout the year. The photo above (taken by Chris Broadbent from the English Department) is from a Split P event in January, when a number of us directed writing workshops for middle school students in the CHAMPS program at Eastminster Presbyterian Church on Trenholm Road. It was a lot of fun—I’ll try to remember to write sometime about the “what the motorcycle said” poem and the fantastic “secret” poems they wrote (like “I want to be a vampire to suck the sweet honey blood of Beyoncé” or “on Fridays I turn into a butterfly, which is awkward because I am a boy”).
More immediately, I’ll be posting some thoughts on ekphrastic poetry, or poems about visual art. I’m intrigued by Blake’s questions about time and visual art, questions that resonate with my own thinking about ekphrasis. Looking forward to this!