This past Wednesday evening from 7-9, Women Poets at Barnard hosted a public reading where the winner of the Barnard Women Poets Prize read her poetry. Possible poet Caroline Lee was in attendance.

Sandra Lim

Since 1986, the Barnard Women Poets Prize has been awarded biannually for exceptional books of poetry written by female poets. This year, the prize went to Sandra Lim, a South Korea-born professor at UMass Lowell, for her collection The Wilderness. One part of the prize is a monetary reward and publication by W. W. Norton and Co, and the other is the honor of reading your poetry at a free, public event at Barnard.

While the event was hosted on the Barnard campus and by a Barnard organization, it was open to the public. Columbia students stood in a ring around the room, because by the time they arrived the seats were all taken. Once everybody was comfortable and silent, the introductions began. Of course, there was the obligatory mention of Barnard’s 125^th anniversary and the lesser-known  30^th anniversary of these public poetry readings. Louise Glück, former poet-laureate of the United States and judge of the 2014 Barnard Women Poets Prize, would be reading her own poetry before Sandra Lim read hers, but first, Barnard tradition dictated that they must be introduced by Barnard poets.

The Barnard poet chosen to introduce Glück had high praise for her, and specifically spoke of Glück’s manipulation of scope in her poetry, which moves from telescopic to microscopic images of the word. When Louise Glück took the podium, her work had been rather thoroughly analyzed and recommended. She spoke of her role in judging the Barnard Women Poets Prize and recommended Sandra Lim’s The Wilderness “with a passionate praise,” saying that “it was one of the highlights of [her] past year.” She read some of her own poetry, and then turned the mic over to the Barnard poet who introduced Sandra Lim by describing the images of thawing and rebirth in The Wilderness. Then, Sandra Lim finally took the podium.

Lim modestly said that she almost didn’t want to read so that she could just leave us with the praises of that introduction, then went on to read from the first and fourth sections of her book. She cited early American poets as a theme from her works, but also had very personal influences such as her experience growing up in a Korean household and her own emotions. An article can’t do justice to the poetry, but the reactions of the Columbia students in attendance say it all.

One female student said that she “enjoyed the counterposition of the two poets—what they shared was lucidity.” An enthusiastic freshman was bursting to talk about how much he loved the reading: “There are some lines of poetry that are so good they feel inevitable, like someone was always going to say them.” A couple of people commented on how there was very little thematic connection between Glück, who used clear but surreal images and who was very preoccupied with death, and Lim, who focused on motifs of nature.

Some less poetry-oriented students said though the event was enjoyable, they didn’t feel qualified to analyze it or comment on the quality of the poems. In any case, we all agreed that the wine and cheese was delicious.

Barnard Women Poets and Writers at Barnard host numerous poetry readings and other literary events in Sulzberger Parlor that are open to the student body throughout the year. The schedule of events can be found here.

Image via  UMass Lowell