- Collection:
- Press Releases
- Title:
- UGA LAW PROFESSOR SELECTED FOR NATIONAL POET LAUREATE PROGRAM
- Creator:
- Office of Communications and Public Relations
- Date of Original:
- 1999-02-03
- Subject:
- Law--Study and teaching
- Location:
- United States, Georgia, Clarke County, Athens, 33.96095, -83.37794
- Medium:
- press releases
- Type:
- Text
- Format:
- application/pdf
- Description:
- Wednesday, February 3, 1999 WRITER: Kathy R. Pharr, (706) 542-5172, pharr@jd.lawsch.uga.edu CONTACT: Alex Scherr, (706) 542-6510, scherr@jd.lawsch.uga.edu UGA LAW PROFESSOR SELECTED FOR NATIONAL POET LAUREATE PROGRAM ATHENS, Ga. - University of Georgia law professor Alex Scherr, who directs the law school's civil clinics, has been selected by the Poet Laureate of the United States, Robert Pinsky, as one of 12 Georgia participants in the national "Favorite Poems Project." These 12 will read their favorite poems during a ceremony and reading at the Atlanta History Center February 9 at 6:45 p.m. Pinsky started the Favorite Poems Project to create an archive of citizens reading their favorite poems on tape. Part of a broader effort to stress the importance of poetry in America's cultural heritage, the Project solicited single paragraphs describing the applicant's favorite poem and the reasons it might serve as part of the archive. The Project selects the readers, records their poems and archives the tapes at the Library of Congress. Scherr submitted the poem, "At the Fishhouses," by Elizabeth Bishop. In his submission to Pinsky, he wrote: ". . . the language and movement of the poem is quiet and powerful, combining her deceptively natural and easy language, precision of insight and mastery of tone to create an artifact both personal and universal. I should add that I read this poem aloud to whoever I can reach with it, and would love the notion that I could introduce more to the pleasure of hearing both the poem and Bishop." Scherr and his wife, Candace, moved to Athens from Vermont when he joined the law faculty in 1996. He is active in the community, serves on the board of the Athens Justice Project, and at the law school maintains programs for legal service and support to victims of family violence, the homeless and the underserved in Athens-Clarke and Oconee counties. He is also a volunteer reader for Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic, which makes texts of all sorts available by tape to the blind and visually impaired.
- Metadata URL:
- https://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/press_releases/361
- Holding Institution:
- Alexander Campbell King Law Library
- Rights:
-
