“Roethke & …” Series kicks off with Tess Gallagher
On August 12, we will launch the Roethke & ... Virtual Series in which contemporary poets and scholars discuss Roethke's influence on their own work and on other poets, past & present. This series was inspired by two Roethke panels included in the Society for the Study of Midwestern Literature 2025 Symposium. Our sincere thanks to John Rohrkemper who organized the panels and this series. The talks are a complement to our annual spring Virtual Scholars Series featuring contemporary scholars discussing specific poems by Roethke. This is all in keeping with our mission to preserve, protect, and promote Roethke’s literary legacy.
These are pay-as-you-can events. If you are able to, please consider making a donation to support our work keeping the Roethke and Stone Houses maintained and providing year-round access to free poetry programming. The Roethke Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization in Saginaw, MI, and donations of any size are appreciated.
All events are via Zoom & begin at 7pm EST.
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Tess Gallagher will join Sherrin Frances and Madeline Bruessow for a talk that springs from her unpublished poem, “Sitting in the Dark.” This will be a conversational, interview style presentation with time for questions and discussion with the audience.
Gallagher, the author of eleven books of poetry, lives and writes in her hometown of Port Angeles, Washington, and in her cottage in Co. Sligo, Ireland. She is the only American to have been honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award for her poetry from the Fondation of Rome, which she received in 2023. Her most recent poetry collection Is, Is Not, published by Graywolf press, won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award. Gallagher participated in BIRDMAN and SHORT CUTS, films centered on the work of her late husband Raymond Carver’s stories. Her own collection, The Man from Kinvara: Selected Stories, published in 2009, is the basis for film episodes under development. She was privileged to speak and read in celebration of Theodore Roethke at the Bloedel Reserve in September 2024.
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Lynn Domina will discuss thematic and stylistic connections between Theodore Roethke and Walt Whitman.
Domina is the author of several books, including three full length collections of poetry: Inland Sea, Framed in Silence, and Corporal Works, and one chapbook, Killing Him. Her poems have appeared in The Los Angeles Review, Lake Effect, The Southeast Review, and many other periodicals and anthologies. She teaches English at Northern Michigan University and lives in Marquette, Michigan--though she was born in Saginaw.
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John Rohrkemper will discuss the relationship between Roethke and William Carlos Williams.
Rohrkemper is Professor Emeritus of English at Elizabethtown College and was formerly the Director of Creative Writing at the college. Besides his scholarly writing on American literature and culture, he has written more than thirty works for the theater, including short and full-length plays and an opera libretto. Additionally, he has worked as an actor, director, composer, musical director and dramaturg.
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Join Anita Skeen for a reading of her work and a discussion on how Roethke has affected her writing.
Skeen is currently Professor Emerita in the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities at Michigan State University where she is the Founding Director of The RCAH Center for Poetry at MSU and the Series Editor for Wheelbarrow Books.
She is the author of six volumes of poetry: Each Hand A Map (1986); Portraits (1990); Outside the Fold, Outside the Frame (1999); The Resurrection of the Animals (2002); Never the Whole Story (2011); When We Say Shelter (2007), with Oklahoma poet Jane Taylor; and The Unauthorized Audubon (2014). With Taylor, she co-edited the literary anthology Once Upon A Place: Writings from Ghost Ranch (2008). Her poetry, short fiction, and essays have appeared in numerous literary magazines and anthologies. Collaboration is an important aspect of her work and she is currently involved in writing projects with poets Jane Taylor and Cindy Hunter Morgan. With linocut artist Laura DeLind, she has recently completed a poetry manuscript, Even the Least of These: The 10-line Poem in the Time of Crisis.
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Join Donny Winter for a reading of his work and a discussion on how Roethke has affected his writing.
Winter is an LGBTQ+ poet, educator, and activist currently residing in Midland, Michigan. He teaches creative writing and composition at Delta College. He’s authored three poem collections: Casting Seeds (2022), Feats of Alchemy (2021), and Carbon Footprint (2020), each garnering a Pushcart Prize nomination. His poems have appeared in numerous magazines and journals, including Somber Midwest, Awakened Voices, CultureCult Magazine, and Millennium Pulp. As of 2024, his poetry has appeared in the comic story “In the Shadow of a God,” in IDW Publishing’s Godzilla: 70th Anniversary comic book anthology. For more information, visit www.donnywinter.com.
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Join Kathleen Flenniken for her talk, “Dressing in the Dark in Light of Roethke,” which will include a reading of her work and a discussion on how Roethke has affected her writing.
Flenniken is the author of Dressing in the Dark (Lynx House Press, September 2025) and three previous poetry collections. Her honors include fellowships from the NEA and Artist Trust, a Pushcart Prize, a Washington State Book Award, and an ALA Notable Book Award. Her poems have appeared in Poetry, Image, Orion, the anthology Poetry Unbound, and in the documentary film Richland, now streaming on Apple TV. She served as Washington State Poet Laureate from 2012 to 2014.
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Karen Lulich Horwath will discuss the relationship between Roethke and Mary Oliver.
Horwath teaches creative writing and AP English at the Saginaw Arts and Sciences Academy in Saginaw, MI. She previously directed the Writing Center at Delta College and taught composition at both Delta and Saginaw Valley State University. Her work has appeared in Still Life and Simple Things. Passionate about nature’s role in healing, she co-directs the annual Higgins Lake Writing Retreat for SASA students. Outside the classroom, she plays keyboards with the instrumental world music band Argontos and enjoys downhill skiing, hiking, distance cycling, and gardening.
