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First Friday Poetry Reading: Sybil Pittman Estess

Presented by Inprint at Inprint House

August 7, 2009

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Inprint's First Friday Poetry Reading Series presents Sybil Pittman Estess, nominee for 2009-10 Poet Laureate of Texas, reading from her most recent books, Blue, Candled in January Sun, and Labyrinth.

Sybil Pittman Estess, Ph.D., is the author of her new third poetry release: Labyrinth, August, 2007, by Pecan Grove Press. Estess' previous poetry volumes are Blue, Candled in January Sun, Word Tech Communications, 2005; and Seeing the Desert Green, Latitudes Press, 1987. Sybil Estess has co-authored In a Field of Words, a creative writing textbook, with Janet McCann, Prentice Hall, 2002, and co-edited Elizabeth Bishop and Her Art, University of Michigan Press, 1983.

Born in Mississippi, Sybil Estess has a B.A. degree from Baylor University, an M.A. from the University of Kentucky, and a Ph.D. from Syracuse University. Sybil has lived in Houston for nearly 30 years. She has served as a literature panelist for both the Texas Commission on the Arts and the Cultural Arts Council of Houston as well as on the Adult Education Council of Christ Church Episcopal Cathedral. Sybil Pittman Estess was a founding organizer of the Houston Poetry Fest.

Estess has published poems in such journals as The Texas Review, New Texas, Concho River Review, Borderlands, Windhover, Shenandoah, The Paris Review, The New Republic, Western Humanities Review and Southern Poetry Review. Her literary criticism has appeared in Modern Poetry Studies, The Southern Review, The Denver Quarterly, The Iowa Review, New Texas, Borderlands, Manhattan Review, The Texas Review and elsewhere.

Estess has taught at the University of Houston, the University of St. Thomas, Rice University, Houston Community College, Blinn Colleges in Brenham and College Station, Texas, and for Inprint, non-credit extension of the Creative Writing Department at the University of Houston, Christ Church Cathedral, and the C. G. Jung Center.

She has been a Traveling Artist for Austin Writers League, in Austin, Texas, and in the summers of 1995 -2002 Sybil Pittman Estess taught in "Common Ground," formerly a National Endowment of Humanities (NEH) Seminar in Multi-Cultural Literature for teachers.

Poetry manuscripts of Estess' have won runner up in five national contests: Green Rose, New Issues Press; University of Michigan Press; Walt Whitman Contest; University of North Alabama; and Salmon Run Press. They have also received Honorable Mention at the University of North Texas Press.

Estess is currently working on two other books: The Red Dress (a prose memoir of growing up in Mississippi), and Perfect Blue (poems about Sicily, Italy).

Inprint is proud to serve as a host for the First Friday Poetry Reading Series. The First Friday Series is the oldest poetry series in Houston and has been held monthly on the first Friday of each month since 1975. The series is coordinated by Robert Clark, who may be e-mailed at houstonfirstfri@aol.com . The featured poet is always followed by and open mike.