Hello.
Thank you, Laynie, for asking me to introduce Renee.
It's an honor to do so.
Renee Angle is the University of Arizona Poetry Center's program
coordinator where she oversees the administrative and
logistical details of educational outreach programs.
She holds an MFA from George Mason University
where she was editor for the journal So To Speak,
a feminist journal of language and art.
She taught for the John Hopkins Center for Talented Youth
and for a charter school in South Tucson.
Her poems have been published in Diagram, Practice, New Art
and Writing, Sonora Review, EOAGH and the chapbook
Lucy Design in the Papal Flea, which
is out with dancing girl press.
I admire the way Renee questions authenticity.
She understands that truth is an arrangement just as much
as history and fact are.
For instance, she sets her mind to the task
of lifting linguistic products from the life
and work of the mythological and historical figure
Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism.
And by repurposing the language of authority and faith,
exposes the constructed of these concepts.
By reusing, rearranging, rewriting, and rethinking,
Renee's new constructions are as much
social criticism as creative act.
Through her linguistic turns and jumps,
we lose the sense of authenticity and gain
a new sense of experiencing.
So please welcome, Renee Angle.
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