On Jan. 30, Kate Bolton Bonnici, assistant professor of English, and visiting poet Laura Reece Hogan read aloud from their new poetry books in the Surfboard Room of Payson Library. The reading was their opening event, showcasing their recently published books, and they plan to take an extended tour during spring break in Alabama, according to Bonnici’s website.
Lisa Smith, assistant professor of teaching of English, introduced the two poets. Both Bonnici and Hogan are originally from Alabama, started their careers as lawyers and share the same faith background, Smith said.
Bonnici holds a Doctorate in English from UCLA, a Master’s in Fine Arts from UC Riverside and a Juris Doctor from NYU School of Law. Hogan holds a Juris Doctor from UCLA School of Law and a Master’s in Theology from St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo, California.
“It may take / a whole life to know that the dark of the moon / differs from the night, / that what is bright and what is baffling / orb together, full,” Hogan read from “Soul as Half Moon.”
Hogan pulls from the natural sciences and uses imagery of animals, the elements and celestial bodies. She read first from her book “Butterfly Nebula,” published Oct. 1.
“‘Butterfly Nebula’ reaches from the depths of the sea to the edges of space to chart intersections of the physical universe, the divine, the human and the constantly unfolding experience of being ‘one thing in the act of becoming another,’” Hogan said.
From the collection, Hogan read several poems including “Soul as Half Moon,” “Playing with Tiger Sharks on the Missile Range” and “Heart as Siphonophore.” People interested in Hogan’s work can find samples of her poetry on her website.
Bonnici presented from “A True & Just Record,” published Oct. 31. The book weaves together materials from the English witch trials, contemporary poets and philosophers and Bonnici’s own family as a form of experimental scholarship, Smith said.
“With fury and care, haunted by absences, these poems — all also forms of experimental scholarship — interrogate, disrupt and play,” Smith said.
After finishing her dissertation in 2020, Bonnici said she wanted to approach scholarly work in a novel way.
“I wanted to think and create like a scholar but without writing in sentences in essay form,” Bonnici said. “And so my question was, ‘How can I compose something that would think through this material?’”
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Bonnici had access to digitized archive texts, she said. Thanks to the work of librarians, most of the material she drew from was available online.
Bonnici and Hogan both experiment with various poetic forms, creating different experiences for those who hear the poem read aloud versus those who read with their eyes on the page. When observing a poem on the page, readers notice features like the shape and line breaks more clearly — listeners can miss these characteristics in spoken poems.
People often encounter poetry in isolated sessions, perhaps as an assignment in an English class; however, with poetry books like Hogan’s “Butterfly Nebula” and Bonnici’s “A True & Just Record,” one can appreciate the full arc of a narrative and the resounding effect of many poems layered together.
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Contact Madison Luc via email: madison.luc@pepperdine.edu
