Elizabethtown College held its Scholar-in-Residence Celebration featuring Dr. Emily Grosholz Wednesday, March 13 at 6:30 p.m. at the Bowers Writers House.

The Scholar-in-Residence program aims to bring in speakers who do interdisciplinary work. Grosholz fits this description because she is a poet, mathematician and physics philosopher.

She graduated from the University of Chicago with a B.A. in 1972 and Yale University with a Ph.D. in philosophy in 1978.

She is also the author of eight collections of poems, including “The River Painter,” “Shores and Head-lands,” “Eden” and “The Abacus of Years.”

Grosholz read some of her poems at the event. Before the event began, the director of the Bowers Writers House, Jesse Waters, introduced her.

Grosholz’s first poem was from an anthology featuring poems about California.

“I spent time in California when I was very small and then went back as a teenager and an adult,” Dr. Grosholz said.

The poem she read was entitled “Golden Earrings” about a mother daughter relationship.

“I liked this poem because it reminded me of my grandmother,” senior Bronwyn Morris said.

The next two poems she read were villanelles, a type of poetic structure.
“I lived in Paris 40 years ago and lived among artists,” Grosholz said, “I later found out that they all got kicked out.”

The poem she read was based on her personal experiences living there.
The other poem, “Holding Pattern,” was about having to say goodbye to people at airports.

The poem highlighted the sadness felt when one doesn’t want the another person to leave.

“I liked this poem because it reminded me of when I studied abroad and how hard it was for me to say goodbye,” senior Aimee Stonelake said.

Senior Morgan Shoemaker also liked this poem because of its emotion. The next poem was about when Dr. Grosholz was pregnant and was entitled “36 weeks.”

“Being pregnant is an amazing experience, especially at the end,” Grosholz said.

The poem explored the baby’s perspective from inside the mother’s womb.
“The poem made pregnancy sound fun,” Morris said. Continuing with the theme of children, the next poem was inspired by Grosholz’s own child.

The poem was entitled “Discovery of Puddles” about a child playing in puddles for the first time.

“It is important to write cheery poems,” Groholz said.

The next poem was about her child’s first piano lesson. “I wasn’t able to take piano lessons as a kid, so I made my children take them,” Grosholz said.

The poem recounts how the child went from just making sound to creating actual music through song. Moving away from the theme of children, the next poem related to Grosholz’s work.

The poem was entitled “In Praise of Fractals” and was inspired by her friend Benoit Mandelbrot who discovered geometric fractals.

The poem described the discovery and its importance. The last poem was inspired by a blues song. It was written in two different parts and was about missing someone.

“I once was in love with a guy from Argentina,” Grosholz said.

After the the poems were read there was time for a brief question and answer segment.

The main topic of this discussion was about where Grosholz gets her inspiration for her poems. She talked about how part of it comes from her work and part of it comes from personal experiences.

The event concluded with a traditional chocolate fondue reception. This gave students and attendees a chance to mingle with one another and talk to Grosholz one on one.

There were also copies of Grosholz’s poems on sale and students could student charge.