Williams poem published by international literary journal

Southeast Missouri State University's manuscript by prize-winning poet William Carlos Williams is no longer unpublished.

This summer, the international literary journal The Paris Review included a copy of the poem, "About a Little Girl," in its summer edition.

The poem has been under the stewardship of the university since March, when it was donated by Michael and Carl Lund. Williams, who was also a physician, wrote the poem for their mother, Marian. Williams treated her for leukemia when she was a child.

Williams' estate controls the publication rights to the manuscript, while Southeast controls the rights to the physical property. The two worked together to have the poem published for its first time in The Paris Review, said Dr. Robert Hamlin, director of the university's Center for Faulkner Studies, which takes care of the university's rare book collection.

Hamlin calls the work "a very significant poem by a major poet."

Southeast has plans to publish the poem in book form later this year, with an introduction by Michael Lund.

msanders@semissourian.com

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