{"id":73111,"date":"2013-02-21T08:21:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-21T13:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=73111"},"modified":"2023-06-27T13:13:22","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T17:13:22","slug":"student-poet-goes-on-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2013\/02\/student-poet-goes-on-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Poet Goes on Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Allegra<\/a>
Allegra Berndt ’14 (CLAS) reads one of her poems. (Sean Flynn\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

UConn junior Allegra Berndt has been selected to represent the University of Connecticut on the Connecticut Poetry Circuit, and is reading her work at participating universities throughout the state.<\/p>\n

The circuit, which is directed by Manchester Community College professors James Gentile and Mariana DiRaimo, is an annual contest to identify the \u201coutstanding college poets in Connecticut,\u201d according to a press release. Poets are nominated through submissions to their respective creative writing departments, the best of which are forwarded for review by a Connecticut Poetry Circuit panel of \u201cprofessional poets\u201d who choose the poet most fit to represent his or her college on the circuit.<\/p>\n

Berndt says the circuit is akin to \u201cgoing on tour.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c[The tour is] more like a road trip, a traveling tour of poetry,\u201d she says, \u201clike a caravan of gypsies, but with less scarves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berndt, a sixth-semester English and psychology major, has previously been recognized for her work through the UConn English Department. Last year, she came in third place \u2013 behind two postgraduates \u2013 in the Wallace Stevens Poetry Prize Contest, as well as receiving an Honorable Mention for the University\u2019s Edward R. and Frances S. Collins Literary Prize.<\/p>\n

Darcie Dennigan, assistant professor-in-residence in English, says her work is \u201calways an unsettling pleasure to read.\u201d Dennigan says Berndt\u2019s poetry borrows \u201cfrom obscure psychic texts, scientific articles, folklore, parables, and recipes \u2026 [and weaves] these elements together to make one, strange, almost mystical whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berndt emphasizes precise word choice, and experiments with the structure and devices of prose fiction in order to share an emotion or experience with her reader.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically when I started writing I was telling a story,\u201d Berndt says, maintaining that she \u201cdidn\u2019t choose\u201d to write poetry. \u201cI was playing around with fiction and it became a narrative poem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berndt cites several influences in her work, notably the \u201cmuted glow\u201d aesthetic of her Cambridge, Mass., upbringing. The press release from the circuit also describes Berndt as a collector of \u201cfortune cookie slips in her spare time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berndt is unsure what role poetry will play in her future, but recalls the advice given to her by former U.S. poet laureate Kay Ryan, the featured guest at the Wallace Stevens Poetry Prize Competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe told me that life doesn\u2019t begin until you\u2019re 30, so I figure I\u2019ve got plenty of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Berndt is touring with fellow poets Emma Phillips (Trinity College), Elizabeth Norton Sallee (Wesleyan University), Amanda Schoen (University of Hartford), and Amelia Urry (Yale University) until March 8. The circuit stopped by UConn on Feb. 18.<\/p>\n

Pillow Dictionary,<\/strong> by Allegra Berndt
\nA. An apple, an acorn, attention, affection. Gifts.
\nI need definitions for words I have never heard: knop, lacustrine, yare, emmet, wakerife, lanose, foehn
\nI want spaces in between lines, to fill in the real meanings.
\nThe definition of foehn; \u201cdid you know\u2026\u201d
\nThere is a definition for elsewhere, there is perhaps one for hereafter, one for kismet.
\nEssive case carries the meaning of a temporary location or state of being
\nThe definition of amandine; \u201chi.\u201d
\nIf you ask at a store for a pillow dictionary, they will give you a small book.
\nThe definition of ephemera; ticket stubs, little notes, gum wrappers.
\nSaving places. Slipped in between the s pages
\nThe definition of the word sough; \u201cyou, too?\u201d
\nAs I was falling asleep I pictured taking a word apart, and with the shrill sound of polished rocks falling together, the word fell into a handful of bright minerals on the page, citrine, amethyst, and olivine.
\nTo share tomorrow, a mark at interlunation, at chamade.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UConn junior Allegra Berndt has been selected as a Connecticut Student Poet, and is reading her work at universities around the state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":72346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2234],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[117],"class_list":["post-73111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-university-life"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-05 04:37:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/58"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73111"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73111\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73798,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73111\/revisions\/73798"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/72346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73111"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=73111"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=73111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}