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0 VOLUME NUMBER 8 APRIL 8, 1985
Marty Silverthorne Wins
The Chapbook Award
Marty Silverthorne is a
senior. He came to St. Andrews
after six years of rehabilitation
following his motorcycle acci
dent. Marty had business as the
original field of study he wished
to pursue. However, this was to
change soon.
Marty was quickly turned to
English after taking Bayes’
creative writing class and hear
ing him read his own poetry.
The Writer’s Forum was
another influential factor in his
decision to both study and write
poetry. Bayes had told Marty
once, “just listen to the music.”
And listen he did. Yet that did
not seem to be enough. Marty
felt the need and desire to write
the music, like the “perfect
country song” he used to dream
of writing as a child.
The poetry Marty writes
stems from present en
vironments or past ex
periences; all the poems are
real and lived. His themes of
writing are particularly
character sketches; what he
calls “institutional peosm”,
those are hospitals, rehabilita
tion centers and brick buildings
of business; his family; and the
BY BRIGITTE TOMASOVIC
desire to be a real part of the
“flower child” generation.
Marty says that in some way he
is present in all his poems, and
not just as the writer.
Marty has taken poetry from
being a classroom assignment
to an emotional release to a
true creation of art. Of all the
forms of writing Marty enjoys
poetry the most. He defined
poetry as being “a bunch of
sentence fragments
strategically placed and
somehow linked.”
This year is not the first year
Marty entered the Chapbook
competition. He entered last
year as well in hopes that his
name would become familiar in
the circle of writers. Perhaps it
was this that aided his chances
of winning or perhaps it was the
true perfection of the poems
themselves. As Joel Op-
penheimer said, “Marty’s
poems are alive and sharp
beyond his years. It’s a
pleasure to see them in one
place.” In response to having
won the award Marty said,
“I’m too proud to put it into
words. This award has made
these past four years the best
spent years in my life.”
Marty and his fellow writers
will be honored at the Annual
Writer’s Banquet on Thursday,
April 18. Afterward Marty and
Dr. Robbins, a professor of
creative writing at Radcliffe
and Harvard, as well as other
student readers will hold a
Writer’s Forum in the Belk
main lounge at 8:00 p.m.
He Started Out Teaching Soccer And Jfound Up Teaching Creative Writing.
George Bruce Visits St. Andrews
BY NEIL LESLIE
The career of Dr. George
Bruce, Scottish poet, visiting
professor of poetry and
creative writing at St. An
drews, and E. Harvey Evans,
Distinguished Fellow for spr
ing 1985, had an expected and
surprising start.
Dr. Bruce recalls that in his
high school days in Fraser
burgh, Scotland, he was an “ir
regular scholar,” and “a very
poor examinee.” One of his pro
fessors told him he was “not
regarded as university
material.” yet he was, “very
highly regarded as a footballer
(soccer player) and a gym
nast,” and even went to London
for a tryout with Arsenal, a top
British soccer team. With such
a mediocre school career
behind him, how did his family
react to his chance for athletic
glory? Dr. Bruce says dryly,
“My father was not impress
ed.” Bruce failed university en
trance examinations - including
those in English twice - but did
score very high in
mathematics. But after making
a poor showing as a math stu
dent, he decided to give English
another try. The result: a first
class honor degree in English
Literature and Language from
Aberdeen University.
Since then Dr. Bruce’s career
has definitely been on the
upswing. He has published four
volumes of poetry, two o f
which have won awards; he has
lectured and taught extensively
in Scotland, Australia and the
United States. He has worked
with the British Broadcasting
Corporation and produced
films and radio and television
programs, and written a
satirical “entertainment” for
the stage which he described as
a “perverted history of
Scotland.” He has received the
Order of the British Empire for
his contributions to the arts.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 8