Flagler to present Ideas and Images series

Flagler College has announced to Historic City News that readers are welcome to attend when fourth-generation Floridian poet, Terry Ann Thaxton, kicks off the free “Ideas and Images: Visiting Scholars and Artists Program” on October 3 at 7:00 p.m. in the Flagler Room at Flagler College located at 74 King Street in St Augustine.

Upcoming series events will feature an international composition of artists and authors; promising to introduce a fresh and creative component to the greater St Augustine community.

“The poems in Getaway Girl, my first collection of poetry, explore how the external landscape affected my internal landscape and perception of the world,” said Thaxton. “For me, poetry didn’t always come easy.”

The University of Central Florida English teacher believes that the natural landscape of the state, from its scrub, to its pine flat woods, had a major impact on her life.

“When I first began writing poetry, I was unable to write but a few poems — I simply could not recount the events of my childhood,” she said. “Still, I was driven to write from my imagined experience.”

As she continued to write, Thaxton discovered that the driving force behind her poems was the desire to give voice to the silence that had been expected of her as a female in her family.

While her poems often begin with a personal impulse, Thaxton hopes her writing goes farther that.

“I want my writing to extend beyond the personal to reveal truths about the human experience,” said Thaxton. “In terms of composition, I want the poems to show experimentation, a sensitivity to craft and a respect for the tradition of poetry.”

In addition to “Getaway Girl,” which was published in 2011 and won the 18th Annual Frederick Morgan Poetry Prize, Thaxton will be releasing her second book, “The Terrible Wife,” in 2013. She has published poetry in journals such as Rattle, Connecticut Review, Comstock Review, Hayden’s Ferry, West Branch, Tampa Review and other international literary journals.