"What Their Hands Had Sent Ahead" and "Strangers"/Hagia Sophia

Heather Derr-Smith reads excerpts from "What Their Hands Had Sent Ahead" and "Strangers" in the Hagia Sophia.

The Girl Named Tents--Istanbul

Heather Derr-Smith reads her poem, "The Girl named Tents" from her second book, "The Bride Minaret" on the streets of Istanbul, Beyoglu district.

Heather Derr-Smith Reads Trans/substance from her book, The Bride Minaret with Godard in the background.

Heather Derr-Smith reads "Interrogation I" from her forthcoming third collection, "Breath Hold Break Point".









Heather Derr-Smith will be Reading Thursday Night, November 12th, 7pm at the Des Moines Social Club with the Iowa Women Poets.

Heather Derr-Smith reads her poem, "shawk", from her third collection, "Breath Hold Break Point".



Derr-smith will be reading with Jim Coppoc, Jen Mcclung, Brian Whalen and others at Cafe Diem in Ames, Iowa this friday, October 23rd from 6:30-8:30. All proceeds will go to help combat homelessness in Iowa. Register for Reggies Sleepout with the Iowa State MFA team!

Poetry Readings and Workshops in Bosnia, December 3-9th

Heather Derr-Smith will be reading from The Bride Minaret and Each End of the World as well as from her latest work, in four cities in Bosnia in the following venues: International University of Sarajevo, Sarajevo Institute of Science and Technology, BuyBook, CornerBook, the British Council, University of Travnik, University of Zenica, and University of Tuzla, December 3-9th. Check back in for full schedule dates and times! The Readings and Workshops are funded by the Iowa Arts Council, The National Endowment for the Arts, and a grant from Iowa State University.

The Bride Minaret is a book of emotional, literary, and cultural substance. As Mandelson wrote of Auden: the poems bear witness to the close connection between intelligence and love. The same can be said of Derr-Smith, whose work is global, with settings in Iraq, British Columbia, Algiers, Paris, Sarajevo, Cairo, the West Bank, and various U.S. locations. Her poems are intercultural, expansive while still grounded in the evocative complexities of motherhood, childhood, and faith. The Bride Minaret is a wonderfully intense collection.
--Denise Duhamel

In the Bride Minaret, Heather Derr-Smith explores the complex and difficult realities of our gloabl world more comprehensively and comprehendingly than most American poets consider even attempting. Often paying close attention to those displaced and/or disconnected from the society around them--Arabs in Europe, Americans in the Middle East, Mennonites in Iowa, Balkan refugees, Roma orphans, Palestinians, and at the heart of the book, a mother now dislocated from her former, childless self-- these poems ultimately argue that dislocation is itself a kind of location, just as living forever in one place can end up dislocating oneself from the realities of our time.
--Wayne Miller

Heather Derr-Smith - Boundary Waters

Heather Derr-Smith - Boundary Waters

Heather Derr-Smith Reads "Boundary Waters" and "The Song of Palaces" on WFIU Public Radio, Bloomington, Indiana, The Poet's Weave.
Posted using ShareThis