THE WRITER SON (Part III of the Tucson Chronicles): My 20-year-old son, Kevin, ate lunch with Aurelie Sheehan and me. My evil plan was to have Aurelie ply him with many compelling reasons he should enroll in college and stop futzing around with menial jobs, the kind I used to have both before, during, and after college. I also asked her about ways that 20-year-old writers like Kevin can get involved in the literary scene. She plied him with lots of details and loads of encouragement. Summer events are sparse, but readings bloom in September in local coffeehouses, indie and corporate bookstores, and on campus – at UA and Pima County Community College. Aurelie gave us directions to the UA Poetry Center, which we visited later. It’s an oasis on a sun-scorched day, and features a terrific poetry library and meeting rooms for summer classes and poetry groups. Faculty and visitors do research among the great poetry collection. The place even has a poet-in-residence during the summer. Kevin and I browsed the shelves. I settled in to read a rare book of early poems by Al Young. Then I perused a volume of contemporary Irish women poets. Kevin grabbed an anthology of Beat writers. Soon the UA will boast even more space for poetry when its new building is completed in (I think) 2007. It will add another great facility to a town/campus that already is a national literary center.

- posted by Michael Shay @ 9:39 AM