Navy Experiences Inspired Poet Doug Anderson
Posted for College of Southern Maryland
CSM Connections Literary Series features poet Doug Anderson, Nov. 7 at 7:30 pm at the College of Southern Maryland, Leonardtown Campus, Building A, Auditorium, 22950 Hollywood Road, Leonardtown.
Born in 1943, Doug Anderson grew up in Memphis, Tennessee, according to his Poetry Foundation biography, and was a Navy corpsman.
“He served as a combat medic in the Vietnam War, and after Vietnam attended the University of Arizona, where he studied acting. He started writing poetry after he moved to Northampton, Massachusetts, and worked with the poet Jack Gilbert.
Mr. Anderson has written about his experiences in the Vietnam War in both poetry and nonfiction. He is the author of the poetry collections The Moon Reflected Fire (1994), the winner of the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, and Blues for Unemployed Secret Police (2000). In 2000 he published his memoir, Keep Your Head Down: Vietnam, the Sixties, and a Journey of Self-Discovery.
His awards include a grant from the Eric Mathieu King Fund of the Academy of American Poets, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, and a Pushcart Prize. Anderson has taught at the University of Connecticut, Eastern Connecticut State University, and the William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Its Social Consequences at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.
Mr. Anderson will be reading selections from his poetry collections, “The Moon Reflected Fire” and “Blues for Unemployed Secret Police.” $3 in advance, $5 at the event, $3 with CSM Student ID. [email protected], 301-934-7864.
