Southeastern NEWS

                                                       Southeastern Louisiana University
                                           Public Information Office
                                           publicinfo@selu.edu
                                           SLU 880, Hammond, LA 70402
                                           504/549-2341/fax 504-549-2061
    Date: 4/19/01
      Contact:                           Christina Chapple   46

Editors: Photo accompanies release
SLU POET PUBLISHES NEW POETRY CHAPBOOK
     HAMMOND -- Southeastern Louisiana University English professor and poet Jack
Bedell will sign copies of his prize-winning book of poetry, "What Passes for Love," at Bayou
Booksellers in downtown Hammond on Wednesday, April 25.
     Published by the Texas Review Press, "What Passes for Love" is Bedell's third poetry
chapbook and was the winner of the 2000 Texas Review Poetry Chapbook Prize. The book
includes 20 poems, including "Turtle Cove Suite," which Bedell wrote for a 1999 Fanfare multi-
media presentation, and "Keeping the Lamp Lit," which was commissioned last year by
Southeastern's 75th Anniversary Steering Committee.
     The booksigning is scheduled for 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the bookstore, located at 204 E.
Thomas Street.                           
     Bedell, a Houma native, won the1997 Texas Review Poetry Prize for "At the
Bonehouse," a collection of approximately 30 poems set in his native Acadiana. He has received
a number of awards for his work, including the Devil's Millhopper Chapbook Award for his first
poetry collection, "Sleeping with the Net Maker"; the Felix Christopher McKean Award for
Poetry at the University of Arkansas in 1989; and honorable mention in the Deep South Writers
Conference Contests, 1989, and the Academy of American Poets Competition in 1992. His
poems have been published in literary journals such as "Kansas Quarterly" and "Aethlon" and
"Something in Common: An Anthology of Louisiana Poets."
     "Bedell's poems kick up the tempo like a triangle player in the band," said Vivian
Shipley, editor of the "Connecticut Review." "With his clear vision of the natural world, he
probes the complexity of Cajun culture, its celebration of life that is coupled with a strong sense 
                             (MORE)
JACK BEDELL   Add One
of moral value."                         
     Bedell received Southeastern's 1997 President's Award for Excellence in Artistic Activity,
one of the university's highest faculty honors. A member of the Southeastern faculty since 1992,
he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in English from Northwestern State University and a
master's degree from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He previously taught at both his
alma masters and at the University of Missouri at Rolla.
     Bedell has served as editor of the "Argus," a literary magazine at Northwestern State
University and is poetry editor for Southeastern's "Louisiana Literature." 
                             -SLU-
Press release available online at www.selu.edu/NewsEvents/PublicInfoOffice/newsp01.htm