The Demand for Connection
Poet Diane Seuss delivered the 53rd Bennington Writing Seminars Commencement address at the program's virtual winter residency.
Diane Seuss Addresses Graduates of the Bennington Writing Seminars Class of January 2022
Diane Seuss is the author of the poetry collections Still Life with Two Dead Peacocks and a Girl (2018); Four-Legged Girl (2015), a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; Wolf Lake, White Gown Blown Open (2010), winner of the 2009 Juniper Prize for Poetry; and It Blows You Hollow (1998).
Choosing solitude is one thing. Having it foisted on us by fate, by tyranny, by ignorance, is quite another. Now, I want nothing more than to connect. And that want has led me to think about connection, the wish for it, the demand for it, in writing.
Diane Seuss
Seuss's work has appeared in Poetry, the Georgia Review, Brevity, Able Muse, Valparaiso Poetry Review, and the Missouri Review, as well as The Best American Poetry 2014. She was the MacLean Distinguished Visiting Professor in the Department of English at Colorado College in 2012, and she has taught at Kalamazoo College since 1988.
January 2022 Graduate Speeches
Members of the January Class of 2022 celebrated their graduation with a virtual ceremony. Hika Anani MFA '22 and Amanda Taylor MFA '22 also offered addresses to their fellow graduates.