Barbara Ras and Ellendore Watson

The visit by Barbera Ras and Ellendore Watson was particularly interesting for a variety of reasons. First, Barbera Ras is the chief editor of Trinity Press, so there was a locol interest. Secondly, Ras and Watson had been friends for decades from when they were just beginning to write. There's was a relationship not unique nowadays, but which is a critical one. Contemporarily, the literary world is ruled by MFA programs; they give creative writing a degree of professionality. People with MFAs are qualified to teach at universities and then at MFA programs. Watson teaches at Smith College and is the editor of the Massachusetts Review, a well-recognized literary magazine.

So, here are the two writers; Ras (left) and Watson (right).

When they showed up they set up a kind of pair reading, where they would trade off reading poems and telling stories. It was hard to actually ask the two questions, because the topic was slanted towards the perspective of their relationship. But I will say, they had a fun dynamic between them, and often their personal stories behind their poems were better than the actual poems.

From the vantage point of the Lennox Seminar, theirs posed a new relationship between poet and society. A relationship based off poetry seeks approval. And that was what some of their stories were, of them e-mailing poetry back and forth. One would read and critique the other. They knew their poems were nearly finished when the other gave them the green light. I don't know if this is the best process; it bases a lot of its success on the aesthetics of one individual. It is an attractive notion though, to have a partner i writing.