A new face is making a big name in the School of Literature, Communication and Culture. Andy Frazee, recently awarded with the Brittain Postdoctoral Fellowship, has won the 2011 Subito Press Book Competition for his poetry manuscript The Book of I.
The competition is hosted by the Subito Press, a nonprofit publisher with the Creative Writing Department at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Contestants submit their poetry or fictional work, up to 70 pages and 100 pages, respectively. Generally well-known poets and writers determine the winning poetry and fiction submission, publish it and then invite the winners to give a reading at the University of Colorado in the Spring.
“One of the main ways to have a book of poetry published is through competitions like the Subito Press competition; this is true especially for first books of poetry, as mine is,” Frazee said. “So the short answer is I entered the competition to win it and to have my poetry published and distributed as a book.”
What makes Subito’s competition special is its mission to publish innovative works that challenge the norm and capture the contemporary human condition, according to the website. After sending his manuscript to such contests over a couple of years, Frazee was excited that he won at Subito, as many of his publications are cutting-edge.
“Some of the poems are more content to experiment with language, not really trying to ‘say’ anything necessarily, but trying to do something different and new,” Frazee said.
The Book of I covers a wide amount of content and time range. One long poem explores the sudden death of his father in 2001, and another uses newspaper article clips to describe and comment on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The oldest poem in his book is from 2003, and the most recent ones are from 2008.
“I’ve been writing poetry since the end of my undergraduate career…about 1997. I worked in marketing for a few years after that and would read and write poetry in the evenings and weekends. I started grad. school in 2002, so that’s about when I decided to really devote my life to poetry and to writing,” Frazee said.
Frazee also writes book reviews and critiques for several literary magazines and is the author of a published chapbook of poetry, That the World Should Never Again Be Destroyed by Flood, which he read from at the Erato Series event in Sept. He will read his winning manuscript at the University of Colorado next year, and after that, he intends to set up readings around Atlanta and elsewhere.
“As a poet, I hope to continue surprising myself in my writing–for me, that’s the real joy of it,” Frazee said. “I hope to contribute something to poetry in the general sense, and I hope to help other people enjoy and love poetry as much as I do.”
The Brittain Fellowship he recently earned since completing his Ph.D. in English and Creative Writing from the University of Georgia has allowed him to teach at Tech in language fields often related to technology. His interests as a fellow include creative writing, poetry and business communication, as he received a B.S. in Advertising and a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Frazee also worked as an editorial assistant and a book critic.
“As a Brittain Fellow, I really want to do my best to help my students prepare for the kinds of situations they’ll face in the workplace,” Frazee said, as he teaches LCC 3403: Technical Communication for Management Students. “As someone with a business background, I remember how much I used what I learned in my business communication classes, and I hope I’ll be able to pass on those skills to my students.”