03/25/2007

Poetry put in motion

Writers' group picks Mercer, Sprattmoran

By Tom Carr

tcarr@record-eagle.com

TRAVERSE CITY — Two northern Michigan poets have been chosen by Michigan Writers Inc. to have chapbooks of their works published.

The authors are Todd Mercer of Bellaire and Duncan Sprattmoran of Lake Leelanau. The group had intended for one of the books to be of prose, but the poets were particularly strong, said Anne-Marie Oomen, a member of the board of directors for the organization and a contest judge.

"Todd's had this incredible voice and fresh, unusual imagery,” she said. "Duncan's a very sophisticated writer and shows an outstanding use of image-in-idea.”

Chapbooks are small, paperbound booklets. The relatively inexpensive form was popular in Europe before the advent of mechanized printing.

Mercer's collection is titled "Box of Echoes” and contains "a lot of urban, nighttime and some naturalistic settings,” Mercer said.

Sprattmoran's chapbook, "Beyond the Reach of Imagination,” focuses on "how language limits us by how it structures our thinking,” the author said.

The two works were chosen from about 20 submissions. This is the second time the group has run the contest. The first time was in 2005 and the winners were "The Grace of the Eye” by Michael Callaghan and "Trouble With Faces” by Trinna Frever.

Callaghan's work was nominated for a Pushcart Prize, which honors books by small publishers.

Michigan Writers asked for submissions last summer. Judges read the manuscripts without the writers' names attached to encourage a greater degree of objectivity.

Mercer's poems were about entropy, he said.

"It comes to the point where no one can deny it (the universe) is unraveling, yet people still find threads of hope,” he added. "I try to show both sides of that.”

Interlochen Arts Academy instructor Michael Delp calls Mercer's works "chunks of a real world, spliced into language that defies the sometimes true notion that poets are eyeless newts who sit in tiny rooms listening to their hair falling out, while trying to manufacture the truth.”

Sprattmoran tried with his poems to "stretch beyond what I can imagine,” he said.

Local author and contest judge Jack Driscoll had this to say about Sprattmoran's work:

"Duncan Sprattmoran is a writer of the heart, and this chapbook testifies to his enormous talent.”

Michigan Writers had 100 copies of each of the books produced, half of which belong to the authors and the other half to the organization.

Michigan Writers Inc. was begun in 2001 and has about 100 members, Oomen said. Its purpose is to help writers hone their craft and publish their work.

Mercer and Sprattmoran will read selections from their books at the Traverse Area District Library on April 26 at 7 p.m.

This year's and last year's winning chapbooks may be ordered for $10 each, plus shipping and handling, through www.michwriters.org.