“A scholar whose positions you’re not able to take issue… while each chapter leaves you thinking, I couldn’t have said it quite as well myself,” Professor Theo Hummer stated when introducing Nathaniel Mackey at the Writer Series reading that took place this week.

An accomplished poet, Mackey was the writer featured at the reading in Sykes formal lounge last Thursday night. He is the author of four books of poetry, including the most recent, Splay Anthem, which won the National Book award in 2006.

Mackey is also currently working on a series of ongoing prose, which already includes four volumes. The latest, Bass Cathedral, is a work from From a Broken Bottle, Traces of Perfume. Bass Cathedral contains a summation of letters from a band, the founder of the band “N” being the author.

Mackey elucidated that these musical letters throughout the book were in fact “dream letters” that were written to try and articulate every note, every pitch and every beat flowing from the instruments onto the page and into words. Expressing the majestic quality of music and the experiences that come with being a member of a band were just two of the things he hoped to describe with words and poetry that the world can understand.

Mackey also stated during the reading that he enjoyed “writing ongoing series that are fragmentary and that have gaps,” as well as “writing that is in some way in dialogued with music,” which many of his collections of poetry are, including both Splay Anthem and Bass Cathedral. Mackey has also written two books of criticism, including Paracritical Hinge, a collection of essays, talks, notes and interviews which covers topics such as the marginalization of African American experiential writing and the language of music.

It “offers illuminating commentary on these and other artists including Amiri Baraka, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Wilson Harris, Jack Spicer, John Coltrane, Jay Wright, and Bob Kaufman.” Nathaniel Mackey is also an editor of the literary magazine Hambone and teaches at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Mackey captivated the audience with readings from his two most popular works, including both Splay Anthem and Bass Cathedral. While introducing these works, he explained that “both series are forms in transit and they have to do with transit and very much a reflex in reaction to senses of violation, loss of social sustenance, deprivation, transit that moves toward a utopic horizon, which in this poem becomes that heavenly city with a capital C.”