GLENVILLE, W.Va. – Glenville State University Professor of English Dr. Jonathan Minton has released a new book of poetry entitled “Letters.”
“The book is a collaboration between myself, and the visual artists Diana Magallón and Jeff Crouch. The poems draw upon various source materials, including personal letters, historical letters, linguistics, and the history of language. Sometimes addressing the reader directly, and sometimes addressing a mythic “you,” the poems explore the ways in which finding meaning is always unsettled, and always a collaborative act inside the letters we share. The visuals by Magallón and Crouch are based on the poems, and a collaboration in themselves between the two artists,” Minton explained.
Mark Young, editor of “Otoliths,” and author of “The Toast” said that the poems in Minton’s book, “acknowledge the history of letters, draw on letters within that history but are then imbued with personal experience. Their addressees are various, but include all of us. Posed and poised beside the poems are the attendant visuals. They echo the words of their neighbor, sometimes word for word, in clear text, sometimes distorted or decorative, sometimes repeated over, and sometimes reduced to erased text or a single phrase. Every time, though, their setting complements, augments, gives the viewer an additional perspective on the poem.”
Dr. John M. Bennett, Founding Curator of the Avant Writing Collection at The Ohio State University Libraries, called “Letters” an “excellent, multi-layered, and moving book that will sustain many readings and re-readings.”
In addition to teaching literature at Glenville State, Minton also serves as advisor for the campus literary journal, “Trillium” and he edits the journal Word For/Word. He published “Technical Notes for Bird Government” (Telemetry Press) – a book of poems – in 2018 and his chapbooks include “Lost Languages” (Long Leaf Press) and “In Gesture” (Dyad Press). In 2015, he received Glenville State University’s prestigious Faculty Award of Excellence.
“Letters” is available in print and as an e-book at www.moriapoetry.com.
