Poet Explores Gender Identity in Woodland Pattern’s Big Reads

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Identity may be the most well-worn theme in poetry, and yet artists continue to find ways to creatively reinterpret it in modern prose. For renowned literary critic, poet, and Harvard University professor Stephanie Burt, her collection Advice from the Lights is at once a reimagining of her own 1980s childhood (spent as a boy) and a playful look at identity through the personification of objects and animals.

Written over a five-year period that culminated in Burt’s decision to come out full time as a trans woman, Advice from the Lights blends together nostalgic sci-fi lingo and Trapper Keeper references with more wistful yearnings for adolescent acceptance and deep existential questions about gender identity.

This intrepid collection is the focus of a NEA Big Reads project that will run for the next two months under the direction of Milwaukee’s Woodland Pattern Book Center in partnership with numerous local sponsors, including The Bindery/Milwaukee Zine Fest, aCinema, Milwaukee LGBT Center and others. 

During this time, Woodland Pattern will be distributing free copies of Advice from the Lights and holding a number of virtual events and activities to discuss the book. A collaborative community writing project, book discussion, film screening and Q&A with the author are just some of what is planned.  All events are free and open to the public, with a kickoff virtual reading of Burt’s poetry across social media platforms set for May 9 and culminating in a special livestreamed event with the author on June 7. Complete details are available at woodlandpattern.org.