Artists Registry

Ann Struthers

Cedar Rapids IA United States

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I wrote this poem after reading an article in NEWSWEEK about the kids from P.S. 234 and Stuyvesant High School, schools near enough to Ground Zero that the children could see the conflagration. They were eventually evacuated by government officials, walking all of them across Brooklyn Bridge away from the disaster. But how they had to be affected!
Since Brooklyn Bridge figures so promently in American literature, I could not help imagining three figures rising up from the pages of their great works to accompany the children. Of course, Marianne Moore, Walt Whitman and Hart Crane were all with them.

Ann Struthers was born and grew up on a farm near Terril, Iowa. She earned a B.A. from Morningside College, Sioux City, Iowa, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in Modern Letters from the University of Iowa. She is currently a Visiting Professor of Engish and the Writer-in-Residence at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Her poems have appeared in numerous journals including THE HUDSON REVIEW, THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR, THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW, THE IOWA REVIEW and many others. She has two collections and two chapbooks.
For ten years she was the poetry reviewer for THE DES MOINES REGISTER. She also publishes short fiction, feature articles and academic articles.
She was aswarded a Fulbright Fellowship to Syria, 1996-98. While in the Middle East, she lectured in all four universities in Syria, and at universities in Tunisia and Saudi Arabia. She has traveled widely in the Middle East, including eight trips to Turkey, and trips to Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait and Egypt. In 2002-03. she was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to Sri Lanka.
She has four children and five grandchildren. She and her husband live in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.