home Ellis Library, Resources and Services, Uncategorized Five Must-Read Poetry Books

Five Must-Read Poetry Books

By Danielle Gorman Posted in Ellis Library Resources and Services Uncategorized

Posted on April 16, 2021April 15, 2021

From Milk and Honey to Robert Frost, what are your thoughts about poetry? It tends to be one of those genres that stirs a lot of debate. You either love it or hate it. I think poetry gets a reputation that it doesn’t deserve. Sure, there are a lot of poetry books out there that are not worth my recommendation, but with every not-so-good collection, you also have a great one. So, this month for National Poetry Month, I’m counting down the top five must-read poetry books that you can find at your Mizzou libraries! This list contains recommendations perfect for fans of the classics, fans of contemporary, or just readers who don’t know where to begin. Be sure to check out one of these books before April ends!

Crush, Richard Siken

The 2004 winner of the Yale Younger Poets Prize, Crush, is an impressive collection of poems centering around the obsession that can come from being in love. Siken is a master at his craft and an expert at capturing vulnerability to its core, as he creates a series of work that leaves you feeling every raw emotion written on the page. This collection is filled with yearning, heartbreak, and violent imagery that will stay with you long after you finish and is a must-read for lovers of more popular and contemporary poetry.

http://merlin.lib.umsystem.edu:80/record=b5292325~S1

Envelope Poems, Emily Dickinson

Envelope Poems is a collection of work from legendary poet Emily Dickinson written on the actual scraps of paper she originally wrote on! Since Dickinson has only a small amount of her work published, this book is filled with beautiful poems that give the reader the ability to escape into Dickinson’s mind and witness her exact scribbles of these poems. This is an excellent collection for beginners or readers who are intimidated by classics and is a fascinating binding of Dickinson’s work that will leave you marveling at her envelope poems.

http://merlin.lib.umsystem.edu:80/record=b11692634~S1

Native Guard, Natasha Tretheway

2007 Pulitzer Prize winner Native Guard is a story that honors Natasha Tretheway’s mother’s life as well as her childhood. This book of poetry is heartbreaking and sometimes troubling to read as Tretheway confronts the racial history of the South and the story of one of the first black regiments, the Native Guard, who were called to serve in the Civil War. Natasha Tretheway is a natural writer, composing poems that leave the reader feeling heartbroken and impacted by her words. This is a must-read collection for those looking for poems that will leave a lasting impression!

http://merlin.lib.umsystem.edu:80/record=b5853446~S1

The Complete Collected Poems of Maya Angelou, Maya Angelou

In her lifetime, Maya Angelou left her mark on the world by capturing the most vulnerable feelings of being human and putting them into words. Discussing topics from the African American experience to womanhood to the trials and tribulations of love and pain, Angelou inspired and healed her readers with her poems. This is a stunning collection filled with all of Angelou’s most powerful and prominent poems like “Still I Rise” and “On the Pulse of Morning” and is a must-read for fans or readers looking for a beautiful collection of poetry to try out!

http://merlin.lib.umsystem.edu:80/record=b2020581~S1

Ariel: The Restored Edition, Sylvia Plath

After she died in 1963, Sylvia Plath left behind a legacy of being one of the most prominent writers of her time and also a collection of poems called Ariel. In 1965, two years after her death, Plath’s work was finally published and went on to receive worldwide acclaim for her confessional and vulnerable words. However, due to editing by her husband, this original edition was highly inaccurate to Plath’s vision of her collection, and it wasn’t until 2004 that Ariel was able to be restored and published true to Plath’s desires. Ariel: The Restored Edition is a brilliant and thought-provoking collection of poetry that highlights the talent and struggles of the famous poet and is sure to leave the reader enthralled by Plath’s genius writing.

http://merlin.lib.umsystem.edu:80/record=b5186657~S1

Danielle Gorman / English Intern / Spring 2021

home Ellis Library, Resources and Services Mizzou Libraries’ Favorite Female Authors

Mizzou Libraries’ Favorite Female Authors

By Danielle Gorman Posted in Ellis Library Resources and Services

Posted on March 26, 2021April 18, 2023

National Women’s Month may be coming to an end, but there are still many ways you can support female voices throughout the rest of this month and beyond! Whether you chose to donate to a nonprofit organization or decide to learn more about women’s history through sites such as https://womenshistorymonth.gov/, here at Mizzou Libraries, we encourage you to continue showcasing and uplifting women’s voices however you can. One of our favorite ways to celebrate anything at our libraries is by supporting our favorite books and authors! To celebrate National Women’s Month, we asked some library staff members who their favorite female authors are!

Rachel Brekhus (Librarian III, Humanities/Social Sciences Librarian, Instruction Department): Octavia Butler, Sheri S. Tepper, and Harriet Washington.

William Morgan (Library Information Specialist, E-Learning): Marilynne Robinson and Jesmyn Ward.

Gwen Gray (Librarian III, Business, Economics, & Entrepreneurship): Donna Leon, Agatha Christie, Carol Carnac, Sujata Massey, Anne Perry, and Charles Todd.

Corrie Hutchinson (Associate University Librarian for Acquisitions, Collections, and Technical Services): Jane Austen and Agatha Christie.

Rebecca Graves (Educational Services Librarian, Health Sciences Library): Ursula Le Guin and N. K. Jemisin.

Erin Merrill (Library Info Specialist): Sophie Kinsella and Gail Carriger.

Dorothy Carner (Head, Journalism Libraries): Deborah Willis (here is an online exhibit curated by Journalism Libraries showcasing Willis’ work https://spark.adobe.com/page/ZYMtHBO9rPcTn/ )

You can check out many of these authors at your Mizzou Libraries: http://merlin.lib.umsystem.edu/search/X.

Along with reading from your favorite authors, it is also important to remember why supporting female voices is essential when consuming literature. Here is why Mizzou Libraries’ staff members believe reading work by women is important to them!

Corrie Hutchinson: I think it’s important to read female authors so that you have a balanced viewpoint. Books and stories are how people share viewpoints and experiences, so why limit yourself to only one perspective? Why escape to a world that only men created? That’s just silly. No limits.

William Morgan: Because male authors were so much of my own education as well as what I had to teach in World Literature as a high school teacher, I feel I need to focus more on female authors so that I have a more well-rounded view of both historical and modern literature.

Rebecca Graves: Their writing is rich and deep. It is not so filtered through the lens of “I” of being the focus of attention when walking into a room. There’s more depth to even the minor characters. I.e., the characters are there for the story and have their own backstory. They aren’t just there to prop up the lead. I find more variety in their writing. True, all genders of writers have tackled the hero’s journey, but there are more stories to be told than simply the hero’s. I also find it confirming that women have written brilliant stories. To read Le Guin or Jemisin is to have excellent language, rich worlds, and well-crafted plots. They are masters of the craft.

Whatever way you decide to celebrate the duration of Women’s History Month, we hope you visit one of our Mizzou Libraries and pick up a book to support female authors!

Danielle Gorman / English Intern/ Spring 2021

home Cycle of Success Mizzou Libraries Display Students’ Creative Work Even During Pandemic

Mizzou Libraries Display Students’ Creative Work Even During Pandemic

By Shannon Cary Posted in Cycle of Success

Posted on March 19, 2021April 18, 2023

In the Fall of 2020, Dr. Sarah Buchanan was teaching an Honors seminar on material culture and had planned to exhibit work created by her students. Restrictions on gallery visits due to the pandemic meant that her students would be accessing materials primarily online, with the possibilities for displaying their work curbed greatly. Buchanan conferred with Kelli Hansen, Head of Special Collections, and Marie Concannon, the head of government information at Mizzou Libraries, who had collaborated with her to display the physical exhibit in Ellis Library in previous years. Concannon brought in Shannon Cary, the Libraries’ communications officer, who offered to display the exhibit on the Libraries’ website.

The exhibit “Making Art for All/Our Time” showcased work by undergraduate students for the Honors seminar “Get Real, Go Places! Let Objects Take You There.” Over eight weeks, the students gathered on Zoom to peer inside the galleries, shelves and sidewalks of campus where objects of material culture are prudently managed for public interactions. The course introduces students to the practice of interpreting, inspecting and writing about objects through regular use of a sketchbook journal and weekly syntheses shared with classmates. The course is taught by Dr. Buchanan of the iSchool at the University of Missouri along with gallery, library, archive and museum (GLAM) professionals based on the Mizzou campus who contribute to the Material Culture Studies Group, established in 2014.

The Mizzou Libraries were also able to contribute to the class by providing some of its own material culture for the curriculum. The students were introduced to Special Collections through a Zoom session that focused on a broad range of items, including cuneiform tablets, maps, artists’ books and works of art. Items selected for this class are browsable on the Special Collections website.

Buchanan stated that, her “desired outcomes for the exhibit of Honors student works are to showcase themed explorations of objects we encounter across Mizzou’s galleries, libraries, archives, and museums – promoting collection uses while introducing students to material culture research.” The seminar is a central part of Buchanan’s research and teaching activities focused around provenance research, recently funded by an IMLS Early Career Development grant (the first to MU). Provenance research when applied to objects from cultures past and present can foster stronger connections between a person’s heritage, homelands, and present-day learning.

The digital display, which is still available online, includes a clay sculpture recreation of a political cartoon, a colored pencil response to works shown in the Bingham Art Gallery, and an embroidered fiber art piece depicting the plants and native species of Missouri, among others. “One digital artwork revisits the 1916 Golden Lane protest in St. Louis,” according to Buchanan, “and reminds us that art persists and connects our communities to each other.” She says the exhibit title also sought to capture the alternating sense of time being suspended yet urgent in the virtual semester, when “traveling” involved more screens and fewer miles.

The Libraries were happy to contribute to the success of the exhibit by displaying it on our website. Buchanan said she appreciated the “librarians’ flexibility in transitioning from a planned in-person exhibit to a digital post, given the physical risks right now. The students are thankful and happy to see their work alongside their classmates’.”

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