Scott Wiggerman's Poetry Pages

H o m e

I am a poet and retired librarian who lives in Austin, Texas with my partner of fourteen years, David Meischen, also a writer, and our indoor cats Silver and Tawny, and our outdoor cats, MJ and Blondie. We're a typical American household--at least in my circle of friends. We live in a wonderful 1940's home among many oak and pecan trees in Wilshire Woods, close to both downtown Austin and the University of Texas.

I am a member of the Writers' League of Texas, the Poetry Society of Texas, the Austin Poetry Society, the Associated Writing Programs, and a participant in an on-line poetry critique group, through the Internet Writing Workshop (IWW). In 2004 I became the leader of the WLT Poetry Study Group. I also served for seven years as a Board member of the Austin International Poetry Festival and for eight years as the Poetry Columnist for the Texas Writer, the monthly newsletter of the Writers' League of Texas. Both organizations continue to be good to me and for me. I have taught a number of workshops for the WLT over the years, including "Jump-Start Your Creative Engines," "Jump Start Redux," "Poetic Forms for Today's Poets," "The Well-Seasoned Sonnet," Putting the Creative in Creative Writing: A One-Week Exercise Program," and "Working Out Your Writing Muscles: A One-Week Exercise Program," among others. For the past four years I have taught in the WLT's Summer Writer's Retreat in Alpine, Texas.

My "Egret Sonnet" has been nominated by Hobble Creek Review for the 2011 Sundress Best of the Net, as well as a Pushcart!

Coming up:December 1-3, I will be participating in the first-ever Flor de Nopal Literary Festival at the Mexican American Cultural Center. In addition to readings by two dozen poets, the Festival includes workshops, one of which I will be giving on the evening of December 1 called "Meeting Your Muse." January 14 I will lead an all-day workshop called "Six Approaches to Structuring a Poem" at the Writing Barn--see my "Workshops/Courses" page for more information and registration. I will repeat the workshop on January 21.

In the Past Year: On October 26, I participated in a reading and literary panel at Austin Community College alongside Alyssa Hayes, Lyman Grant, and Jill Essbaum. Our audience was Danish students in Texas to learn about gaming technology and Texas literature! On October 7, I participated in an art/poetry/ekphrastic event in Memphis, TN called "Fragments" at the Harrington Brown Gallery. Twelve artists and twelve artists from all over the South and Southwest responded to each other's fragments of their works to create new works. On September 23, I was the featured reader at Cianfranni's in Georgetown on the Square, where the theme of the evening was "Presence." On September 15, I launched my new book Presence (see below) at BookWoman, the evening of my birthday--a packed house and a thoroughly enjoyable "birthday bash" complete with red wine and chocolate. On May 5, I was the featured guest at the San Gabriel Writers League in Georgetown. On April 9, I co-hosted two readings for the Austin International Poetry Festival at BookWoman with Cindy Huyser--one featuring Texas Poetry Calendar poets and the other featuring LGBTQ poets. April 4, I was in Oak Hill teaching a workshop called "Putting Your Library to Poetic Effect" at the Austin Public Library's Hampton Branch. On February 26, I hosted a reading at the Twin Oaks Library in South Austin (2:30-4:30) featuring poets in the Monday night Poetry Study Group I've been running for several years. On February 18, I taught two sessions of Austin language arts teachers how to teach a "Manipulated Fourteen-Line Poem," adapted from Ravi Shankar's exercise of the same name in the book of poetry exercises I edited called "Wingbeats" (see below). On February 12, I was in Webster speaking to the Gulf Coast Poets at the local Barnes & Noble Bookstore (10:30 a.m.), where we did a brief poetry exercise. February 8, I was in Johnson City for the Johnson City Writes event. This included a morning author panel which included my friend Suzy Spencer and an afternoon workshop, "Creative Approaches to Creative Writing."

My second book of poetry, Presence, from Pecan Grove Press, has just been released with a gorgeous cover by friend and photographer Carol A. King. Here's what some of my favorite poets have to say about Presence:

Laurie Kutchins, Pulitzer-nominated author of The Night Path, says, "Presence evokes the elements--palpable qualities of air, earth, water and fire, and more--the difficult-to-render textures of familial love, lovers, loss, renewal, memory, and what one needs to stay present to the elemental world. So many moments in Wiggerman's poems 'evaporate like broth into essence,' allowing us to feel absence become presence. And as the poet wisely notes, 'the juxtaposition is seamless."

Cyrus Cassells, Lambda award-winning author of Beautiful Signor states, "In Presence, Scott Wiggerman uses an intransigent stain as an emblem of buoyant integrity in the face of intolerance and exclusion. In this new book, nimbly arranged by the elements, the poet, brandishing his trademark sass, humor, and candor, glories in local nature and limns the joys and trials of being a lovingly irreverent Texas gadfly, a proud and forthright gay man."

And Robert McDowell, author of the best-selling Poetry as Spiritual Practice, writes, "In Presence, we meet, in the poet's own words, 'the drumming of a buoyant heart.' It is a sound that will not defer to injustice. It is an intelligent and artful yawp that won't go quietly. It is a witnessing we need to hear in a world so full of babbling and duplicity. It's the sound of truth itself . . . . Through it all, Wiggerman's marvelous craft gives shape to his versatility and poignant insight. He is a must-read American poet. Share him with everyone you know who cares about words and the truth."

Copies of Presence are available right here through the PayPal link, at Amazon.com, at the Pecan Grove Press website, at BookWoman and BookPeople in Austin, the Twig in San Antonio, and the Blue Willow in Houston! If you order through PayPal on my site here, I'll be glad to autograph your copy--and I'll pay your shipping (sorry, U.S. orders only!).

.My partner and I took over the publishing of the Texas Poetry Calendar beginning with the 2006 edition. To do so, we started a new press, Dos Gatos Press. Please take a look at the link to this site, and wish us luck with this venture! Better yet, help us out by either purchasing a copy of the calendar or making a tax-free donation, as we are a non-profit organization! We've also released three books: an anthology called Big Land, Big Sky, Big Hair: Best of the Texas Poetry Calendar's First Decade; Karla K. Morton's Redefining Beauty, winner of a 2010 Next Generation Indie Book Award, and the brand-new Wingbeats: Exercises and Practice in Poetry. All Dos Gatos Press books are available on the Dos Gatos Press website, as well as through Amazon, Baker & Taylor, Barnes & Noble, and Follett's.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention my first book of poetry, Vegetables and Other Relationships, of which poet Judith Minty says, ""From painful moments of childhood to silky erotica to delightful bursts of humor, Scott Wiggerman's faith in the power of human love and caring prevails to make Vegetables and Other Relationships a true feast." To order a copy of Vegetables and Other Relationships, you have several options. As a website special, if you send a check to me for $10.00 per copy, I will gladly autograph your copy and get it in the mail to you (1310 Crestwood Road, Austin, TX 78722) and pay the postage myself. OR you may buy it through PayPal, a secure payment service I've added to my website, at the same low price. All PayPal purchases are sent out by me, so I can also autograph books by this payment method. OR you can also order through the various dot.com bookstores.

Now that you've learned a little about me, I hope you'll take the time to visit my other pages through the menu on the left. I also encourage you to email me your comments, by clicking the mailbox below:

Thanks for stopping by!