Faculty Spotlight on Melissa Balmain, author of "Walking in on People"
April 14, 2014
Adjunct Instructor Melissa Balmain will be featured in this evening’s Faculty Spotlight, part of English Week 2014. Melissa will be sharing some of her most recent poems at 5:00pm in Robbins Library. Balmain is the author of the recent book of poems Walking in on People, now available for pre-order with Able Muse Press.
In Melissa Balmain’s Walking in on People, the serious is lightened with a generous serving of wit and humor, and the lighthearted is enriched with abundant wisdom. She shows us how poetry can be fun yet grounded in everyday challenges and triumphs, with subjects ranging from the current and hip (Facebook posts, online dating, layoffs, retail therapy, cell-phone apps, trans fat), to the traditional and time-tested (marriage, child-rearing, love, death). Through it all, her craft is masterful, with a formal dexterity deployed with precision in a showcase of forms such as the villanelle, ballad, triolet, nonce, and the sonnet. It is little wonder then that Walking in on People is the winner of the 2013 Able Muse Book Award, as selected by the final judge, X.J. Kennedy. This is a collection that will not only entertain thoroughly, but also enlighten and reward the reader.