This podcast is a little different than our usual programs. Dr. Naomi Long Madgett, the Detroit Poet Laureate, had been on our interview “wish list” for some time. Last fall, we tried to interview her here on the podcast about her latest book, You Are My Joy and Pain. That did not work out, and sadly, a few weeks later, she passed away. Today, we’ll be paying tribute to Madgett’s career as a poet, publisher and Poet Laureate from 2001 to 2020. We’re talking with two people in the Detroit literary community about her work, her legacy and how they will remember her. Our featured guests today are:
Listeners who would like to know more about Dr. Naomi Long Madgett’s career can find biographies on broadsidelotuspress.org, at poets.org, and also a more recent version at this link: https://naomilongmadgett.wixsite.com/naomi-long-madgett/biography)
Biography M.L. Liebler: www.mlliebler.com
Biography of Leisia Duskin, Graphic Designer, Educator, and Writer
Leisia Duskin is an artist, graphic designer, and educator. A graduate of the College for Creative Studies, Ms. Duskin is a Special Instructor teaching graphic design, varied format and apparel printing in the Printing and Graphics Program at Cornelius Golightly Career and Technical Center, Detroit Public Schools Community District.
In 1983, she received a grant from the Michigan Council for the Arts for her book of poems entitled Lights Out in Ten (edited by poet Stella Crews). Leisia Duskin’s poems have been published in the South End Newspaper (Wayne State University) and in the Broadside Press anthology, Hipology: Horizons in Poetry, edited by Ron Allen and Stella Crews, Detroit Perspectives: Crossroads and Turning Points (Great Lakes Books Series) 1991..
Ms. Duskin joined Dr. Madgett to support the writing efforts of others published by Lotus Press. Their teamwork led to a life-long friendship. Dr. Madgett commissioned Ms. Duskin to create two illustrations for her acclaimed book, Octavia - And Other Poems (1988), reprinted as Octavia - Beyond Guthrie (1992). Over the years, Leisia Duskin would win the Lotus Press Graphic Design Excellence Award in 2008 for outstanding book design, and inclusion in the Henry Ford College Faculty Graphic Design and Photography Exhibition in 2014, for the 2012 Naomi Long Madgett Poetry Award book cover design Three Birds Deep by poet Sheila Carter-Jones. Her most recent book layout and cover design was for the Naomi Long Madgett (NLM) Poetry Award is Blues Legacy by poet Jacquese Armstrong, 2019.
Ms. Duskin joined the Board of Directors of Lotus Press in 2000, and served as Board President from 2005 to 2015.