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Poet Sally Allen McNall to Read for Writer's Voice

Sally Allen McNall, Honors Program, will read from her recently published book of poetry, Rescue, Friday, April 7, at 7:00 p.m., at Barnes and Noble Bookstore. She will also read on April 13 for the Writer's Voice series, 7:30 p.m., in the University Center. Rescue is the winner of the 1999 Backwaters Prize.

McNall has published extensively in literary journals such as New Letters, Prairie Schooner, Midwest Quarterly, Muse!, The Seattle Review, and The Portland Review. Her chapbook, How to Behave at the Zoo and Other Lessons, was one of the three winners of the 1997 State Street Press competition.

Greg Kuzma, judge for the Backwaters Prize, said of McNall, "Five or six times I've encountered voices such as hers that seem to me indispensible. All the virtues are here -- charity, compassion, honesty, tenderness, and generosity of spirit. Each turns its facets, flashing light just at the right moment. These are poems that will sustain us long into the next century." --

Rescue

After fire, wildflowers unseen
in thirty years. A few cars
made it up the dirt roads to see.

I used to wonder if I
could risk my life for another's.

I answered, thoughtlessly,
my small grandson standing
on the sidewalk looking up
Yes, that tree is dead

and gave myself
to the quick fire
that splits the dormant seed.