By welcoming poet and non-fiction writer Sebastian Matthews into its midst this weekend, the Bowdoin Outing Club (BOC) adds a new dimension to the outdoor experiences it typically offers. Matthews will work with the BOC to combine the great outdoors with creative writing through a weekend of hiking, writing, and reading in Maine's western mountains.
A graduate of the University of Michigan's MFA program, Matthews' works include his memoir, "In My Father's Footsteps," his chapterbook, "Coming to Flood," and his latest work about jazz, "We Generous."
"I am entirely proud of 'We Generous', " Matthews said in an interview with the Orient.
"There are poems in there I wrote 10 years ago. There were many mixed emotions that came with writing and publishing a memoir. It's nothing like that with this book. These are my poems. Take 'em or leave 'em. And it's a blast reading from a book," he said
Matthews comes to Bowdoin through his connection with From the Fishouse (http://www.fishouse.org), a site created by Matt O'Donnell, associate editor of Bowdoin Magazine.
"The Web site is an audio archive that focuses on emerging poets," said Matthews. "We define emerging poets as those who have no more than two books in print when they submit. They're emerging, but they're the cream of the crop." Awards have been given to many of the poets featured on the site.
"The point of the site is to give people a greater experience with poetry by being able to hear it out loud," said Matthews. "You know people who love poetry have access to your work. You're part of the dialogue." The site also includes a question and answer section that allows visitors to hear what poets have to say about their work.
This weekend's excursion will begin with a reading by Matthews on Friday night at the Schwartz Outdoor Leadership Center at 7 p.m. The trip into Maine's wilderness will leave Saturday morning for Carrabassett Valley where the group will hike and camp at Horn Pond.
"We're going up to the Bigelow mountain range for an overnight and we'll be doing some writing exercises and reading naturalist writers," said Zach Roberts '08, who will co-lead the trip. "It's sort of like an Outing Club trip with a theme, which is different than what we've done before."
The purpose of the trip is to give students who want to write about their outdoor experiences a creative outlet to do so.
"The theme is poetry, and the effect of place and nature on poetry," said Roberts.
"What we want is to give students some of the skills to write effectively about the experiences that they have on the trail and outdoors through the Outing Club," added O'Donnell.
O'Donnell and BOC Director Mike Woodruff believe the trip will be the first of many. There are already plans to bring bring poet Thorpe Moeckel '92, whose work is also accessible on Fishouse, to campus for a paddling trip.
"We're hoping it's something we'll be able to continue to do," said O'Donnell.