Nathaniel Tagg

A Webster City native will share excerpts from his new book in a program Thursday night at Kendall Young Library.

Nathaniel Tagg recently published “Animal Virtue,” a book of original poetry. He’ll read some selected poems from the book and talk about his writing process. The program will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the lower level meeting room. He’ll also have copies of the books available for purchase and signing.

The published work actually started out as his thesis project, Tagg said.

“I was going to school at Rutgers and I was earning my MFA in creative writing. The capstone project was to write a book-length work of poetry,” he said.

After graduation, Tagg said he felt the book wasn’t quite finished.

“I spent several years adding poems, subtracting poems and rewriting the whole thing to make it more cohesive,” he said. The finished work has about 40 to 50 poems.

He said he likes poetry that has eclectic subject matter and his inspiration for poems comes from a variety of sources.

“Typically, what I’ll do is make note of something that seems poetic and I put that in my writing journal,” he said. When he’s ready to write, he refers back to those passages, pairing common themes or sounds.

“Then I start free writing about those things and eventually I have a coherent poem,” said Tagg. He said he’s flexible with his writing schedule, writing whenever he can, usually several times a week. His poetry uses animal imagery, humor, Biblical allusions and various poetic forms to explore the challenges of living well in times of personal, political, existential and environmental troubles.

The poet said he has been influenced by Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson and John Berryman.

“But I also like several contemporary poets,” he said, adding that Thomas Lux was a favorite. “His work is pretty accessible. You don’t have a Ph.D. in literature to appreciate and understand his poetry. I try to write poems that are in that same vein. There’s at least one layer of meaning that anyone can pick up on if they’re paying attention.”

Tagg is a full-time associate professor of English at Cecil College in Maryland. He teaches composition, Introduction to Literature, World Literature and Creative Writing. He has also taught at Rutgers and the University of Nebraska. He and his wife, Carrie Olson Tagg, now live in Lancaster, Pennsylvania with their newborn daughter, Jane.