A persona poem--like any aspiring poem--is an experiment in community engagement, an experiment in empathy, sensitivity, and style.  But it's also an exploration of the balance between a poet's "voice" and the experience they write into. This reading and intermittent craft talk will focus on the fictional self, the self a poet crafts when they write in a voice not exactly their own. 

Matthew Guenette is the author of three full length poetry collections: Vasectomania (University of Akron Press, 2017), American Busboy (University of Akron Press, 2011), and Sudden Anthem (Dream Horse Press, 2008). He is also the author of the chapbook Civil Disobedience (Rabbit Catastrophe Press, 2017). His poems have appeared in numerous journals and reviews, and he has had residencies at the Vermont Studio Center and the Hessen-Wisconsin Fellowship. A graduate of the MFA program at Southern Illinois University, Matt currently teaches composition and creative writing at Madison College in Madison, WI, where he lives with his wife, two kids, and a 20-lb cat named Butternut.