Digital Writing and English Lecturer Dr. Jess Hylton, who joined CCU last year as writer-in-residence in 2022-23, is currently using her impressive skills to work on a very exciting project. Hylton studied professional writing and literature before graduating at 19. She earned her master’s degree from Radford University and her Ph.D. in poetry from University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She wrote her thesis in fiction, and her new project seems to be taking a windy path among different creative writing genres.
Dr. Hylton is using her PhD to create a collection of poetry that is centered around punctuation marks, all while following a romance that eventually dies, titled A Love Story – Punctuated. The uniqueness of this story mixed with Hylton’s creativity and talent make for an exciting proposition of the story to come.
Hylton is currently a Lecturer here at CCU who teaches Composition and Critical Reading and Film, New Media, and Culture, is teaching her students to follow their passion in life, and to not let anyone force them to deny it. Hylton is doing just that with her work-in-progress, and we all look forward to its release.
When creative writing professor Dan Albergotti encouraged his poetry class to enter the Paul Rice Broadside Series Poetry Contest, one of his students’ winning was in the back of his mind. That is exactly what happened, however, when marine biology major Jingle Wells ’23 ended up winning the competition with her poem “Epitaph,” which she wrote after coming across an Instagram post from a close relative. We spoke with Wells to discover more information regarding her piece.
A photograph showed up Wells’ Instagram feed one day that showed a simple headstone in a graveyard.
“I had just noticed the fact that there was only one word on it,” said Wells, “like the only other thing on there, besides his name and his face with a heart, was the word ‘son.’
This barren headstone struck a chord in Wells, as she thought of all the things the person could have been.
“I thought about the fact, which is sort of covered in the poem, that most people’s gravestones say something like ‘father of three,’ ‘loving mother,’ ‘loving wife,’ something to assert like the mark they made in the world,” said Wells. “He only had the opportunity to be ‘son,’ and he still made a big impact because there are so many people who are still thinking about him and still caring about him.”
This analysis took Wells to new heights, as she was able to draw from this idea into a creative piece. Wells wasn’t new to the Paul Rice Broadside contest; she had entered before, but never won. Her accomplishment stemmed from an evolving style in her poetry and the use of differentiating formats to become one with the current times.
He only had the opportunity to be ‘son’…
Jingle Wells, from “Epitaph”
“I used to write things that did not have as much enjambment or as many line breaks,” said Wells. “They were more in the old antique style, I would say, of sonnets — not quite to the level of being Shakespearian, but very, very form rigid.”
Wells’ reconsideration of her writing techniques led her to find and hone her unique style, and this led to her drafting a poem she really wanted to share. She hopes it will affect the world in a positive way. As contest winner, Wells won $100 and several copies of the broadside, which is a poster printed with the poem and accompanying art.
Wells feels blessed and grateful to have won this contest for her own personal reflections and that she gets to showcase her progress to her teacher, Albergotti, who taught her poetry for the last two semesters. One of the biggest moments this poem has granted her is with Albergotti himself.
“I think the coolest thing that happened to me was Dr. Albergotti, who I really respect not only as a professor but also as a person and a poet, got me to sign a copy of the Broadside for him,” said Wells. This amazing moment truly touched Wells and encouraged her to want to dip her pen into even more poetry, and even other opportunities to come, such as becoming a published writer one day.
For now, though, this exciting news has edged Wells forward towards further education, as she has recently been accepted into the Master of Fine Arts in Writing program at Florida Atlantic University. The immense pride and thankfulness Wells has earned from participating in and winning this competition will aid her in feeling validated in her future creative works. Although Wells is a very recent graduate, her impact and vigor in the classroom will influence both current and future students for years, as she hopes this poem and its message will get out and be shared to everyone.
“I just hope that everyone enjoys it and takes to heart the message of treating every day like the gift that it is,” said Wells.
When you come back next semester, stop by the English department to grab a copy of the Broadside for yourself.
A: I am mostly a poet who pushes her work toward the intersection of writing and visual art. However, I work a lot with feminist and LGBTQIA+ themes and gothic monsters in text and film.
Q: What was the title of your master’s thesis or dissertation?
A: So fun story, I wanted to call it Scatter; or, James Joyce Always Makes me Think of Boobs, but my dissertation director said that by having “boobs” in the title, I could hurt my chances of getting a job. So we changed it to Scatter; or, A Series of Minor Inconveniences.
A: I have work forthcoming in The Southern Poetry Anthology, Vol. IX: Virginia published by the Texas Review Press, and my collection, Fracture; or, James Joyce Always Makes me Think of Boobs is under contract with Clare Songbirds Publishing House.
In her spare time, Hylton is a roller derby fiend.
Q: What and where was your previous position?
A: I was an Associate Professor and the Director of the Master of Fine Arts program at the University of Arkansas Monticello.
Q: What is your favorite assignment to assign?
A: What a groovy question. I know I’m going to immediately think of something else, but the first thing that pops to mind is the personal narrative.
Q: What was the last book you read?
A: I just reread Straight Man by Richard Russo because it always makes me laugh.
Q: What do you enjoy most about CCU so far?
A: How kind everyone is to each other. It’s a really awesome work environment.
To Dan Albergotti, professor of poetry in Coastal Carolina University’s Department of English, poetry is a way to see our world through a different lens, to make connections from the past to the present, and to understand the capacities and limitations of human life.
“I remember reading poems when I was a teenager for English classes and feeling like I was discovering something there,” said Albergotti. “It didn’t feel like I was studying something ancient. I felt like I was getting insight through the poem into the life of a human being that happened a long time before I was alive, and yet I recognized it.” Like time capsules, poetry can capture a snapshot of history on a page, transcending the limits of verbal communication over time.
In his most recent chapbook, Circa MMXX , Albergotti considers the year of chaos, panic, and political violence that was 2020. He puts into verse his thoughts concerning the world and humanity during that year and how it connects across our cosmic past.
“It’s got stuff about the pandemic in it. It’s got stuff about the very violent ideological politics of the time—the destruction of a lot of democratic norms over four years from 2016 to 2020,” said Albergotti. “So the poems are very topical and informed by a moment, but I’m always trying to find a way in them to see beyond that, to see a larger relevance, to connect it to something beyond the moment.”
Drawing inspiration from various poets, Albergotti shows within Circa MMXX how the past tends to reinvent and reconnect itself to our present lives through poetry. For example, Philip Larkin’s “MCMXIV” [1914] inspired the last poem of Albergotti’s chapbook, “MMXX.”
Albergotti notes that in remembering the thousands of lives lost during World War I, “Larkin’s poem ends, ‘Never such innocence again.’ And the idea behind it is that after such a cataclysmic event, no one could be innocent to the world again,” said Albergotti. In “MMXX,” Albergotti makes a similar connection, using two men fishing as a metaphor. “The last two lines are, ‘The fish drifts back toward the hook, no longer afraid, such innocence, ever again,’” said Albergotti. “The idea of going back towards the hook and not heeding your fear, or not really understanding the danger you’re putting yourself in, is that other kind of innocence which is ignorance. It’s like saying, ‘What have we learned? Here we are100 years since the flu epidemic that killed a whole lot of Americans and people worldwide, and here we are again100 years later.’ We just forget. We let it seep out of our consciousness, and we don’t prepare.”
In writing about timely topics within this collection, Albergotti hopes to challenge his readers to view the events of 2020 differently and to view poetry as a way to take control over the chaos of life.
“There’s this one thing that Robert Frost said about poetry that stuck with me,” said Albergotti. “He said, ‘It’s a way of taking life by the throat and not letting life get away with skirting around you. You take it by the throat and say, “This is real. This is it.”’”
We don’t always think of poetry as a performance art. Though it’s fundamentally designed to be spoken, poetry is frequently considered to be a solitary pursuit, with the creator focused inward. CCU senior Aliza Saper, physical theater major and winner of the Spring 2021 Paul Rice Poetry Broadside Contest with her work “To Eat and Be Eaten,” brings the dynamic nature of poetry back to its rightful place: front and center stage.
Aliza Saper reading her piece, To Eat and Be Eaten
Saper’s winning
work is a reflection on the nature of space, the passage of time, and a
permeating anxiety that she believes afflicts everyone in a Covid-19 world.
“This is my Covid life,” Saper said of her winning work, which was judged by poet Abraham Smith. “I think we all have a version of this right now. The problems that we’re facing, the struggles that we’re having, are all compounded together.”
Saper edited and submitted the poem from her childhood bedroom, the same place she inhabited the entire pandemic. The focus on space in the poem blends with a chronic worry that Saper fears is an unavoidable symptom of the pandemic.
“It really has been a time of, ‘If it’s not this thing that’s eating at me, then it’s this thing,’” said Saper. “And then it almost feels abnormal to be at peace and not be worrying — we have become so used to that little eating-away-at-you feeling that something’s wrong, something bad is going to happen.”
Saper has certainly gained notoriety for her verse in her final semester at CCU; in addition to her Paul Rice Poetry Broadside Contest honor, Saper also won the inaugural commencement poetry contest, open to all pending graduates of the E. Craig Wall Sr. College of Business Administration and the Thomas W. Edwards and Robin Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts, established for the combined ceremony for students of the two colleges. Saper’s winning work, “Inches,” will be presented at commencement.
Joe Oestreich, chair and professor of the Department of English, said Saper’s approach transcends mere reflection on a given subject.
“What I love about her work, and this commencement poem specifically, is how she gets beyond the sentimentalized, conventional wisdom of her topic to the truth with a capital ‘T,'”said Oestreich.
Theater has always
been the center of Saper’s artistic life, with poetry serving as a side hobby. Her
discovery of poetry as performance occurred during a gap year she took after
attending Illinois Wesleyan University for one year. At home in Denver and
feeling a bit pigeonholed, Saper dared herself to attend the weekly poetry slam
at the Mercury Café.
People liked my words, and I was shocked.
“I went, and it
was one of those magical moments in life when I was in the right place at the
right time,” said Saper. “I had written poetry before — that wasn’t new — but
performing it was. People liked my words, and I was shocked.”
Saper enrolled in CCU’s physical theater program the following year, and during that time she founded Tongues in Common, a monthly poetry open mic night at Yoga in Common in Myrtle Beach. Established in February 2019, the student-run program continues today as an outlet for artistic performance, growth, and connection.
This year’s Paul Rice Poetry Broadside Contest was Saper’s first experience submitting her work, and she encourages other students to do the same, emphasizing the concept of pulling out work that’s already been produced and polishing it up.
“Giving life to
old work is sometimes more accessible and more fulfilling that even producing
something new,” said Saper. “That idea is really well taught to the physical
theater majors: work never dies. I think we’re so used to having our work die.
We get an assignment to make this project, and we organize it, and we show it
in class, and we get a grade on it, and it evaporates after that. But that’s
always raw material. Once you make something, it’s raw material.”
“I write poetry for performance, so I never thought about the importance of details such as punctuation and line placement,” said Saper. “It was a fascinating experience.”
In June, Dan Albergotti and artist Pearl Taylor had a conversation about her animation of Albergotti’s poem “Things to Do in the Belly of a Whale.” See the entire piece below.
