A New Jersey writer, Laura McCullough, came to the University on Oct. 1, 2014 to read her thought-provoking poems as part of the Literature for Lunch program.
When asked how she knew she was a writer, McCullough said, “I live, I breathe, I write.” She went on to say that writing is like a sense; you have to have a sense to be a writer and ask yourself ‘should I write.’
McCullough said that she has discovered that the main theme of most of her poems is the violence in the male culture. In one her poems, she talks about one of her sons going out for college football tryouts. She makes a connection between two men hitting each other with a war scene where people are fighting. She admits that she has obsessions with writing about certain things such as male violence.
McCullough also had a poem about getting a tattoo, and ironically she wrote this poem before actually getting one. The poem describes the pain of getting a tattoo on her arm. She eventually got a tattoo on her forearm because her mother passed away. The tattoo is a swallow from a book of poems her mother would read to her every night when she was young, and it symbolized a new chapter in her life.
McCullough is an astounding poet who has written several books of poetry such as “Rigger Death and Hoist Another,” “Panic,” “Speech Acts” and “What Men Want.” Laura’s first book of poetry was “The Dancing Bear.” She is a full time teacher at Brookdale Community College where she is the founder of their Creative Writing Program and also taught at other colleges. She also had won awards for her writing, including being a finalist for the Brittingham and Felix Poverty Prize.
Giana Russo, Instructor of English, said McCullough’s poems are very intense and shocking to hear. Russo was shaken up in a good way by McCullough’s reading.
