Penn State Poetry Poster Event Recap: *America stop honking I know what I'm doing*

Megabus'd it from Philly to Penn State on Thursday, 3/26 and arrived to some serious VIP treatment. Old Pitt professors Jeff Oaks and Julia Kasdorf. New friends Tameka Cage Conley, Sheila Squillante and Le Hinton. A fancy dinner, hotel room, hotel bar, laughter and poetry.

On my poem, *America stop honking I know what I'm doing*, the judges (Le Hinton, Erin Murphy, Jeff Oaks) of the Pennsylvania Center for the Book's 2015 Public Poetry Project wrote:

"Taut and inventive, Paul Siegell...captures the restlessness and richness of our situation: busy but often stalled in traffic, hungry for some communication with a larger consciousness but deeply skeptical about final meanings."

Eyes wide. And Even Wider for Nicole Miyashiro's bio of my poetic life for the Literary and Cultural Heritage Map of Pennsylvania.

The 2015 PUBLIC POETRY PROJECT: With art by Wilson Hutton, view the four poem-posters of Tameka Cage Conley, Paul Siegell, Sheila Squillante and Mary Szybist here.



The next afternoon, while hunkering down at Webster's Bookstore Café before my Megabus back to Philly, Jason Crane of Webster's asked if a reporter from Penn State's college paper could interview me about the local poetry community. Knowing little about Penn State's scene, but knowing full well that I would also get adorably misquoted, I smiled and said, "Absolutely!" ... The Daily Collegian: "Spoken poetry movement at Penn State" by Christine Tenny. Ah, the well-intentioned.

Be on the lookout, Webster's. I'll be reading inside you come 2016!