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R.J. McCaffery, is an already recognized and accomplished young poet. At our March meeting he will give a reading of his poetry followed by a discussion of writing, editing and publishing poetry in light of the Internet.

McCaffery lives in Athens, Georgia. He holds a M.F.A. in Poetry from Sarah Lawrence College where he was a student of Thomas Lux. His first book, Chaos Theory and the Knuckleballer, a limited print, hand bound text, came out

in the Spring of 2000. His poetry and essays have appeared on The Norton Anthology of Literature’s web site, and in New Books, Ploughshares, Crania, The Alsop Review, The Free Cuisenart, Terrain, Conspire, Shovel, The Melic Review, Octavo, Redwall, and The Alembic.

McCaffery is also the Poetry judge in Georgia Writers Association's annual Members' Contest.

When not restoring vintage 3-speed bicycles, he works on several web-related poetry projects.

Since 1999 he’s worn various editorial staff hats at The Alsop Review. He currently edits Eye Dialect at http://www.contemporarypoetry.com/dialect/.

Ralph Tejeda Wilson, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of English and a member of the graduate faculty in the Masters of Professional Writing Program of Kennesaw State University. He is the Georgia Author of the Year Award Poetry winner this year for his poetry collection, The Black Bridge. Dr. Wilson will be speaking to us about the challenges of being both a writer and a teacher in a university.

Given the current market, the writer who works as a teacher in a university or college is very lucky as there are distinct advantages to this arrangement, employment being foremost. Few writers can make enough money from their work to subsist on well-chosen words alone. And a college teacher has the

advantage of contact with other writers working or visiting on campus. Students can also be a useful resource as they may provide an ongoing source of enthusiasm and curiosity thus helping the writer/teacher maintain his/her own sense of wonder, of “play.”

In the university environment, teachers are expected to produce and publish work at a steady rate. This sounds like a useful stimulus to writing but the external pressure can lead to “writer’s block.” Worse, the pressure to publish can result in the writer playing it safe, refusing to experiment or grow in her/his craft, to take those chances that often make for interesting writing.

Perhaps the greatest pitfall for the teacher who writes is that teaching can become more of a focus than writing. One might tend to direct one’s energies from the lonely and difficult task of writing to that of the far more amiable and less risky job of teaching.

Dr. Wilson will discuss these and other aspects of the writing life we may never have considered.