“Gilgamesh at the Bellagio,” Elder’s 1,300 word mini-epic in strict syllabics based on the Gilgamesh myth and composed during his sabbatical in spring, appears with an introduction by Beth Ann Fennelly in the Fall/Winter 2006 issue of Black Warrior Review, the literary journal from the University of Alabama. Of his good fortune, Elder said, “I thought the poem, because of its length, would never see the light of day except when I opened the drawer in which I had it housed. But I’d shown it to two persons in March, given their interest in my work, our correspondence, and their generous blurbs on the back of my Mead: Twenty-six Abecedariums, which appeared around year ago. In June, out of the blue, came a call from one of the two, Fennelly, who’d just been honored with a guest editorship at BWR. I went into a momentary state of shock, unable at the time to say yes to her desire to write an introduction to and to publish the poem as her sole contribution to the issue. Then I went on a long walk.”
Poet | Fiction Writer