Carolyne Wright as "Scholar Gipsy"

Abstract

Carolyne Wright's latest poetry collection, A Change of Maps, may remind those with keen memories of Matthew Arnold's poem Scholar Gipsy, in which a mysterious male figure abandons the safety of Oxford's dreaming spires to wander the world in search of truth. Poet and scholar Wright has also wandered the world, both in her life and in this new book. The collection reveals a ship's log of discovery and loss that will resonate especially with women of intel lect who navigate the shoals of career and love at home or abroad. Wright has worked her way across the United States, Latin America, and Asia with an astonishing list of earned scholarships, awards, fellowships, grants and visiting writer posts. With a Ph.D. in English and Creative Writing from Syracuse University, she spent years in India, Bangladesh, and Chile on Fulbright projects and other grants that led to publication of three volumes of translations from Bengali and Spanish poetry. Forthcoming in 2008 from White Pine Press is an anthology of translations, Majestic Nights: Love Poems by Bengali Women. Prior to the current book, a collection of her own poetry with Latin American background called Seasons of Mangoes and Brainfire won the Blue Lynx prize from Eastern Washington University Press, as well as the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. Wright reveals the strength of her intelligence, energy, and ambition in this present book. The opening poem, a tour de force abecedarium called Studies with Miss paints a humorous but devastating picture of an aging, financially pressed poet-in-residence, Elizabeth Bishop, who reluctantly presides over a dazed / clutch of undergraduates. Adopting the formalism Bishop imperiously demanded of her young students, Wright crafts twenty-six couplets that not only begin with the requisite abcs and end with subtle slant rhymes, but also entertain the reader with colorful vignettes and playful language. By