Launch party set for Dunkelberg’s latest poetry collection

COLUMBUS, Miss. — An official book launch to celebrate the release of Dr. Kendall Dunkelberg’s third poetry collection will be held Tuesday, March 29 from 5-6:30 p.m. in the Puckett House.

During the launch, Dunkelberg will read from “Barrier Island Suite: Poems Inspired by The Life and Art of Walter Inglis Anderson” and sign books.

“I am excited to be able to launch the book at The W, where the idea for the book first originated,” said Dunkelberg. “I have relied on the support of many friends and colleagues at the university and in the community as I worked on this collection, so it is the most appropriate place to make these poems public.”

With his poems, Dunkelberg details the life of Mississippian and artist Walter Inglis Anderson through the lens of his art. An Ocean Springs native, Anderson often spent weeks on the barrier islands drawing and painting nature. He also designed and decorated ceramics in his family’s Shearwater Pottery.

“I was first exposed to Walter Anderson’s art when Professor Emeritus Dr. Ralph Hitt gave me a drawing of a heron, inspired by one of Anderson’s designs,” said Dunkelberg. “Stories of Anderson’s journeys and his struggles with mental illness inspired the first poem of the sequence, ‘Isle of Caprice,’ and inspired me to learn more about the artist, first by reading Maurer’s biography, and then through the ultimate source, ‘The Horn Island Logs of Walter Inglis Anderson.’”

Dunkelberg has previously published two books of poetry, “Landscapes and Architectures,” and “Time Capsules.”

At Mississippi University for Women, Dunkelberg is the director of the creative writing low-residency MFA and undergraduate concentration, as well as the Eudora Welty Writers’ Symposium. He is a professor of English, creative writing, world literature and 20th century poetry. He earned his bachelor of arts in English and creative writing from Knox College, and his doctorate in comparative literature from the University of Texas at Austin.

Books will be available for purchase during the launch or at The Book End, Books-A-Million, and other bookstores and online retailers . They also may be ordered directly from the Texas A&M Book Consortium, tamupress.com.