In Field Notes on Language and Kinship, Tyler Chadwick follows poetry wherever it leads him, from acts of analysis and interpretation to poetic inspiration, from remembering to deliberate living and becoming. The book records many of his encounters with poems and poets from his anthology, Fire in the Pasture: Twenty-first Century Mormon Poets (El Cerrito, California: Peculiar Pages, 2011). These encounters took shape in various ways as he revisited Fire in the Pasture the many months after it was published. For example, an image from one of the anthology's poems reminded him of a different poem he had read-so he wrote a response that makes a connection between them. Or a line from a poem recalled an experience from his personal life (or foretold one he would have)-and he captured the moment as a memoirist. Or a passage from a poem prompted him to explore the poem's ideas in a larger context of thought-and he slipped into the role of an essayist. Or an excerpt from a poem inspired a poetic response-so he used the lines as a starting point to create his own poetry. In the process of sharing his encounters with Fire in the Pasture, Chadwick explains how he came to love poetry and why it continues to speak to him as a reader, a poet, and a human being. He also explores ways in which language, as an environment humans construct and inhabit together, can help us build or break down kinship bonds. Along the way, he reveals key moments from his life: as a Latter-day Saint missionary learning from New Zealand's people and their social and natural environments; as a son, a grandson, a brother, a husband, and young father observing and interacting with his family members during everyday experiences; as a young scholar exploring the practices and probing the limits of his discipline; and as a lifelong Mormon deeply engaged by the theological and cultural promise of his religion. Through it all we learn how poems serve as his touchstones of remembering and of his efforts to live well. The eight artworks reproduced in Field Notes on Language and Kinship were created specially for the book by Susan Krueger-Barber, who was commissioned for the project by Glen Nelson of Mormon Artists Group. Krueger-Barber's collages converse both with Chadwick's narratives and with Fire in the Pasture, adding another level and genre of storytelling to each book. This is Mormon Artists Group's 24th project.
About the Author: Award winning poet and editor Tyler Chadwick lives in Pocatello, Idaho, with his wife, Jessica, and their four daughters. Besides his family, his greatest passions are running, teaching, and spending time with stories well-told (whatever the genre or source). His fascination with stories is an outgrowth of his fascination with language, not just as a mode of communication but more so as a way of communing with others, of developing deep kinship bonds. In fact, much of what he understands about language as communion has developed out his family relationships, which were what initially fostered his love of words and prompted him to make a career out of studying and teaching language, writing, and literature. He has taught literature and writing for Idaho State University and Brigham Young University-Idaho. His studies focus mainly on poetry (both written and in performance), Mormon literature and culture, rhetoric, the body, performance ethnography, and online teaching and learning. However, he is also interested in flash nonfiction and has begun exploring this short form's potential across prose genres, from memoir to personal essay to literary analysis. He has had poetry, essays, and book reviews published in various magazines and journals; he edited the award-winning anthology, Fire in the Pasture: Twenty-first Century Mormon Poets; and he is the poetry editor for Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought.