Adrian Matejka, author of two award winning poetry collections, will be performing at the next “A Writer’s Life” series at the DTEC campus.
Matejka’s first book, “The Devil’s Garden” is rich with multiracial stories and is part autobiographic, influenced by his interracial background. Matejka’s second and newest work is called “Mixology.” It is influenced by hip hop and personal history that captivates the readers long after reading.
“I’m not sure how to quantify my writing style,” Matejka said. “I’m heavily influenced by 20th century poets like Robert Hayden, Gwendolyn Brooks, and Philip Larkin. But I’m also influenced by emcees, especially the rappers from the golden age of rap. A Tribe Called Quest, De La Soul, and more recently, MF DOOM have inspired the rhythmic cadences of some of my work.
“The challenge is rendering something that is supposed to be experienced aloud (the way rap is) on the page where most contemporary poetry lives. Of course, poetry is meant to be heard as well, so there are some connections between rap and poetry already in place.”
Graduate of Indiana University, Matejka has gone on to collect quite a few titles and awards. His first book, “The Devil’s Garden” won the 2002 Kinereth Gensler Award and his second book, “Mixology” is a winner of the 2008 National Poetry Series, and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award.
“I’ve been writing poetry for 21 years and like many of the heterosexual male poets I know, I got into poetry in a sorry attempt to impress a girl,” Matejka said. “It was my freshman year philosophy seminar at Indiana University and the lady in question said she liked poetry. So I lied and said I wrote poetry, not thinking I might have to actually produce some verse to support the lie.
“Those first poems were awful and she saw through my slim game pretty quickly. But I enjoyed the act of writing the poems and it was on – poetically speaking – after that,” said Matejka.
See Adrian Matejka at the next “A Writer’s Life” series show on March 22. It will be held at 7 p.m. in Room D240 at the DTEC campus.