Respected Poet, Publisher Coming to GCC

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Nate Pritts

BATAVIA, NY (01/13/2015)(readMedia)-- Rich, vivid, irreverent, intimate, romantic, somewhat troubled. These are a few of the words used to describe the poetry of Nate Pritts, a SUNY Brockport graduate and founder of the online journal and small press, H_NGM_N and H_NGM_N BKS. Pritts, author of six books of poetry, will present a Poetry Reading and Writing Workshop on Tuesday, January 27, 2015 from 12:30 - 2 p.m. in the Roz Steiner Art Gallery on the Batavia Campus of Genesee Community College. Sponsored by GCC's Literary Club, the event coincides with the "Community" GCC Photography exhibit which is on display in the Gallery through February 10, 2015.

"Our Literary Club has been looking for opportunities to expose our students to writing and literature," said Club co-advisor Cindy Hagelberger, reference librarian at GCC. "The photography exhibit, with its theme and student focus, seemed like a perfect chance to collaborate!"

"Community" features photographs taken by students in COM 103 (Black & White Photography) and COM 118 (Introduction to Digital Photography). "Their photographs explore the communities they engage with on a regular basis," said instructor Joe Ziolkowski. Two sections of COM 118 experienced a wider community through a SUNY COIL (Collaborative Online International Learning) Project with Prof. Gert-Jan Peddemors at the University of Applied Sciences at Utrecht, The Netherlands. The students shared and edited one another's community photographs and the Dutch students work is displayed on a large video screen in the gallery.

Culturally, photography and writing face similar challenges. In the rush to share words and pictures, quality and depth are often lacking. Of the situation, Pritts has said "In our culture, where writing is being reduced to a transaction delivered in online bursts, I think poetry is all that can save us."

English instructor JoNelle Toriseva, Literary Club co-advisor, was acquainted with Pritts and suggested his appearance. Pritts, of Victor, founded H_NGM_N in 2001 as a mimeograph 'zine. It has grown to encompass an annual online journal, an occasional digital chapbook series, as well as a continuing series of single-author books. It has been recognized by Poets and Writers, the Poetry Foundation, Coldfront and others as one of the most essential and innovative presses operating today.

"H_NGM_N runs on heat generated by the creative fusion of many different things – it's all the things I've learned, and all the things I love, running into each other again and again," Pritts said in an interview with Coldfront, a site focusing on literature and literary culture. "It's the process of that combustion, it's the happening of it. It's people reading poems, people writing poems, people with their heads on fire, with so so much to say."

Pritts' seventh book, "Post Human," is due to be published by A-Minor Press this coming autumn. He is also an Assistant Professor at Ashford University where he serves as Curriculum Lead and Administrative head of the Film program. You can learn more about him at his website www.natepritts.com.

For more information, contact Marketing Communications Associate Director Donna Rae Sutherland at (585) 343-0055 ext. 6616, or via email: dsutherland@genesee.edu.

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Editor's Note:

A photograph of Nate Pritts is available here:

http://marketing.genesee.edu/images/NatePritts.jpg