Peace and War in the Heartland - St Paul Pioneer Press

Pioneer Press

give peace a chance
Writers rail against all wars.
MARY ANN GROSSMANN

Article Last Updated: 01/10/2008 09:54:59 AM CST

Poets for Peace will read from their work at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the University Club, 420 Summit Ave., St. Paul. This is the first in a series of events called Peace and War in the Heartland, sparked by the Feb. 21 premiere of the History Theatre's "Peace Crimes: the Minnesota Eight vs. the War."

One of the Minnesota Eight war resisters, Frank Kroncke, is on Tuesday's program. A former Catholic seminarian, Franciscan monk and lay theologian, Kroncke served 14 months in federal prison for anti-war activism.

Joining Kroncke at the podium will be:

? Margo Galt, reading from "STOP THIS WAR! Americans Protest the Vietnam Conflict," about her husband Fran's war resistance and prison experience as a pacifist.

? Ann Iverson, whose poetry collection "Definite Space" conveys the emotional journey of a stepson's deployments to Baghdad.

? Jim Lenfesty, founder of two poetry festivals, whose newest collection is "A Cartload of Scrolls: 100 Poems in the Manner of T'ang Dynasty Poet Han-Shan."

? Jim Moore, a Vietnam War conscientious objector and award-winning poet whose most recent collection is "Lightning at Dinner."

? Jude Nutter, who grew up in Germany in a building that was once part of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp and who won a Minnesota Book Award for his poetry collection "Curator of Silence."

Rounding out the reading roster are Marianne Herrmann and Tim Nolan, winners of Moorhead-based New Rivers Press' 2007 Many Voices Project competition.

Nolan will read from his poetry collection, "The Sound of It" (to be published in April), and Herrmann will introduce her first short-story collection, "Signaling for Rescue."

Herrmann's seven stories are not about warfare between nations. Instead, she concentrates on hostilities within families that are redeemed, in the end, by love.

The protagonist of "Leonardo's Baby" has lost three children late in pregnancy, and she is so grief-stricken she wants to hurt just about everybody, including her husband. She's even angrier when she learns about the pregnancy of her free-spirited sister, who's in an abusive relationship. In the end, Ellen seems to accept her newborn nephew and turns to her husband for comfort.

"Leonardo's Baby" should have been the title story; it's stronger than "Signaling for Rescue," about a man and his forgetful mother touring Italy.

In "Ducklings" a woman recalls how the family coped with her mother's indifference after the loss of a baby, and how a pair of baby ducks marked the end of their unhappiness.

"Stones" is about a family vacationing at a Wisconsin resort, where the teenage daughter watches her boyfriend do something cruel to her disturbed little brother. Thanks to another brother, the little one is not traumatized.

Herrmann holds a master's in creative writing from the University of Minnesota, where she has taught creative writing. Her undergraduate degree, from Georgetown University, is in art history and English. She has lectured in art history at the American School in Florence, Italy, and two stories are set there.

"Cooking Lessons" is an ode to a husband's love. Melissa, who is recovering from attacks of severe arthritis, is vacationing in Tuscany with her husband, David. Although she's in remission from acute pain, she knows her condition could worsen, and she seems to be mad at David. To put distance between them, she takes cooking lessons from the village woman who has a crush on David. He takes a courageous stand to save his marriage.

In "You Only Want to Scare Her," a teen-age boy tries to take revenge on his young stepmother, but his plan backfires.

Tuesday's University Club program, hosted by St. Paul poet laureate Carol Connolly, will be preceded by an optional 5 p.m. dinner. (For reservations, call 651-222-1751.)

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