Lunch With Books: Poets & Friends Read Timothy Russell

January 30, 2024
12:00pm - 1:00pm

Jan. 30, 2024: Poets & Friends Read Timothy Russell

Marc Harshman will host a reading from the new collection of the late Timothy Russell’s poems: In Plenta Vita -The Full Life, Bottom Dog Press 2023.  Bob Villamagna will share anecdotes from having worked under Tim when he was his crew boss at Weirton Steel and known as “Mad Dog.”  Following Russell’s publications he would become known as “The Steel Mill Poet.”  Also joining in this tribute will be the writers Val Nieman, Kevin Rippin, Frank Lehner, Nancy Koerbel, and possibly others.  Also on hand will be Bottom Dog publisher, Larry Smith, and Russell’s widow, Jodi Dolan Russell.  He was a remarkable man, as well as a highly acclaimed poet and this program should serve as a fitting testimonial to his legacy.

Featured Book:

The cumulative effect of reading Tim Russell's Collected Poems is simply staggering. No other poet sounds like Tim. He created a very distinct, recognizable voice apart from whatever was trending in the larger poetry world--humorous, precise, full of surprise and insight. Whether writing about the natural world or the human, Tim was always paying attention, seeing beneath the surfaces. This phenomenal collection brings renewed attention to his body of work and his contribution to American poetry. ~Jim Daniels, author of Gun/Shy: Poems

In Plena Vita: The Full Life is aptly titled as it includes most of the poems Timothy Russell published in his life, along with remembrances by his wife and children and photographs of this extraordinary poet as husband, father, gardener, and steel mill worker. It is, indeed, a full life and the collected poems are now, as Russell writes in one poem, "in a safe place." This book is that place. Characterized by precise observation, careful attention, and both humor and tenderness, Russell's poems are absolutely original. The Latin titles he gave to most of his poems add a liturgical dimension to his work. Even the gritty mill poems have a sense of the holy within them. I am extremely grateful to have this book of poems and to know that new readers will discover a world here in a voice that is reliably intimate, spacious, and true. -Maggie Anderson, author of DEAR ALL

Reviews

That play between Nature and industry was unavoidable for me. That's the way my world appears. And if I'm just taking objective notes without any value judgment, then half of the things I write about are going to be industry, and roughly half are going to be natural, because that's what I see when I walk out the door.

Yes, nature is a presence, a comfort…but the natural world in my mind is closer to my home. I mean that's where the poppies grow and that's where I see the orioles. I don't see them flying through the mill…so that's where the comfort of nature is; it's being home and comfortable and safe. And for that half of my life in the mill those natural things are rarely there…except maybe the deer walking on the mill island.

There is discipline, spirit, no easy optimism, sensibility, heart in these poems. ~ Gary Snyder

To read Adversaria is to be in the presence of a lively and supple and various mind, as tough as it is American. ~ Li Young Lee

Russell, who works at Weirton Steel, knows how to pare language and image down to a crystal moment....The strength and straight-forwardness of these poems makes them some of the best statements on life not only in a steel mill but the small towns that surround it. ~ Marianna Hofer

From the Back Cover

There is discipline, spirit, no easy optimism, sensibility, heart in these poems. ~Gary Snyder

To read Adversaria is to be in the presence of a lively and supple and various mind, as tough as it is American. ~ Li Young Lee

Russell, who works at Weirton Steel, knows how to pare language and image down to a crystal moment....The strength and straight-forwardness of these poems makes them some of the best statements on life not only in a steel mill but the small towns that surround it. ~Marianna Hofer

About the Author

Timothy Russell (1951-2021) was born and raised in the industrial Ohio Valley. He served in the military as a dog trainer in the early 1970s when he married Jodi (Dolan) Russell. He worked for 22 years at Weirton Steel Company as a millwright and boilermaker while attaining a BA at West Liberty State College and a Masters degree in creative writing from the University of Pittsburgh. He began writing in 1970s and published widely in literary presses, chapbooks, and in his award-winning Adversaria book in 1993.

He and Jodi parented four children with eight grandchildren while living along the Ohio River in Toronto, Ohio. Despite his recurring and debilitating illnesses and being forced to retire, he wrote prolifically and achieved fame as a working-class, nature, and haiku poet.

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