Stacey Waite is a

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or writte ...

—focusing on both

slam Slam, SLAM or SLAMS may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional elements * S.L.A.M. (Strategic Long-Range Artillery Machine), a fictional weapon in the ''G.I. Joe'' universe * SLAMS (Space-Land-Air Missile Shield), a fictional anti-ball ...

and written verse—who also works as an

Associate Professor Associate professor is an academic title with two principal meanings: in the North American system and that of the ''Commonwealth system''. Overview In the ''North American system'', used in the United States and many other countries, it is a ...

of English at the

University of Nebraska-Lincoln A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

. Waite's poetry often explores themes of the body—of the intersections of gender, sexuality, place and relationships. She has published four collections of poetry over the past several years.

Career

Waite attended her first live slam poetry performance in New York City as a teen. Since moving to Nebraska, Waite has worked as a

teaching artist Teaching artists, also known as artist educators or community artists, are professional artists who supplement their incomes by teaching and integrating their art form, perspectives, and skills into a wide range of settings. Teaching artists wo ...

with the Nebraska Writers Collective and its slam-poetry program Louder Than A Bomb (LTAB). LTAB allows high school students from around the state of the Nebraska to write, practice, perform and compete in slam poetry bouts around the state. Waite has also published a significant book, Teaching Queer: Radical Possibilities for Writing and Knowing, in the field of Composition Studies about

pedagogy Pedagogy (), most commonly understood as the approach to teaching, is the theory and practice of learning, and how this process influences, and is influenced by, the social, political and psychological development of learners. Pedagogy, taken as ...

and the teaching of writing with the

University of Pittsburgh Press The University of Pittsburgh Press is a scholarly publishing house and a major American university press, part of the University of Pittsburgh. The university and the press are located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The press ...

in 2017, a project that aligns with Waite's role as a writing professor and her interest in the hows and whys of teaching writing and composition to first-year college students.

Reception

A review in

Lambda Literary The Lambda Literary Foundation (also known as Lambda Literary) is an American LGBT literature, LGBTQ literary organization whose mission is to nurture and advocate for LGBTQ writers, elevating the impact of their words to create community, prese ...

praises how Waite's poetry in ''Butch Geography'' "demonstrates the centrality of gender in our lives; she explores the intimacy and uncertainty of gender." In a recent review, poet and ''

Prairie Schooner ''Prairie Schooner'' is a literary magazine published quarterly at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln with the cooperation of UNL's English Department and the University of Nebraska Press. It is based in Lincoln, Nebraska and was first publish ...

'' editor

Kwame Dawes Kwame Senu Neville Dawes (born 28 July 1962) is a Ghanaian poet, actor, editor, critic, musician, and former Louis Frye Scudder Professor of Liberal Arts at the University of South Carolina. He is now Professor of English at the University of N ...

called Waite "a pathfinder," who in ''Butch Geography'' in particular charts "with disarming honesty, humor, pathos, and willful perplexity the uncertain terrain of gender in ways that shatter assumptions, unsettle easy presumptions, and yet, through the sheer grace of craft ... open us to the beauty of our strange human enterprise."

Publications

Poetry

*''Choke'' - winner of the 2004 Frank O'Hara prize *''Love Poem to Androgyny'' - chapbook, winner of the 2006 Main Street Rag Competition *''the lake has no saint'' - winner of the 2008 Snowbound Prize from Tupelo Press *''Butch Geography'' - published in 2013 by Tupelo Press

Other works

*Butch Defines Feminism Under the Following Conditions *The Kind of Man I Am At The DMV *Aunt Liz Whittles A Wooden Dollhouse *

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Waite, Stacey Slam poets