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The conference, which is free and open to the public, is titled
"Opening Arguments: Poetry and the Law." Events include panel
discussions, presentations, readings and workshops. Sponsors are
the U. of I. College of Law, the MFA Creative Writing Program and
Richard Powers, the Swanlund Professor of English and the author of
nine novels, including "The Echo Maker," which won the 2006 National
Book Award for fiction.
Carl Reisman, a Champaign-Urbana lawyer and author of the poetry
collection "Kettle," is the conference organizer.
In addition to Reisman, the participants are:
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James Elkins, a
professor at the West Virginia University College of Law, the
editor of the Legal Studies Forum and of "Off the Record: An
Anthology of Poetry by Lawyers"
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Rachel Contreni
Flynn, a Chicago lawyer and the author of "Ice, Mouth, Song,"
which won the 2003 Dorsett Prize
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Timothy Nolan, a
construction and real estate litigation lawyer and partner at
Rider, Bennett LLP in Minneapolis and a poet whose work has been
published in The Nation, Ploughshares and Poetry East
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Frank Pommersheim,
who specializes in American Indian law at the University of
South Dakota School of Law and is the author of three poetry
collections and of "Braid of Feathers: American Indian Law and
Contemporary Tribal Life"
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Evie Shockley, a
professor at Rutgers University, a former environmental lawyer
at Sidley & Austin in Chicago and the author of "a half-red sea"
and "The Gorgon Goddess"
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 Reisman said he noticed, after practicing law for a decade, that
many lawyers seemed to "suffer from depression and other mental
afflictions."
He decided to organize a conference on poetry and law, showcasing
poetry-writing lawyers and judges, because he thought such an event
might help law students "gain some courage that they could pursue
their passion for writing and still be lawyers -- perhaps even
better, healthier ones."
He said he also hopes that students, lawyers and judges who
attend "will be inspired to examine their own lives, the ways that
they might follow their own lights."
Very little of the poetry to be read during the conference will
relate to the practice of law, Reisman said. The discussions will
focus on "what it means to practice both as poet and lawyer, how one
impacts the other." One such discussion is a talk Nolan will give on
how Abraham Lincoln was influenced by Walt Whitman's "Leaves of
Grass."
Program details can be found
online or by contacting Reisman at
creisman61@yahoo.com.
(Text copied from
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign News Bureau release)
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