Saturday Short

Today's short is a trailer for a film about poet Spencer Reece's work in Honduras in 2012-2013 at Our Little Roses orphanage for girls. The orphanage is in San Pedro Sula, which has the misfortune to be known as the murder capital of the world. Reece, ordained an Episcopal priest in 2011, is teaching the girls how to write and illustrate poetry with watercolors.

Reece's project with Our Little Roses is the subject of a documentary being made by James Franco.

Reece, whose poem "The Road to Emmaus" is in Best American Poetry 2012, edited by Mark Doty and David Lehman, is the author of The Clerk's Tale (Mariner Books, 2004), his debut collection and a winner of the Bakeless Prize, and the forthcoming The Road to Emmaus (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2013). He is the recipient of National Endowment for the Arts and Guggenheim fellowships, a Whiting Writer's Award, and the Witter Bynner Prize. Reece's project in Honduras was supported by a Fulbright grant.

Our Little Roses Film (Documentary Film Blog)

My thanks to Kathleen Fleniken from whom I first learned of Reece's inspirational project in Honduras.

Of Interest

James Franco's short film The Clerk's Tale takes its inspiration from Reece's poem "The Clerk's Tale included in Reece's debut poetry collection of the same name and based on Reece's employment at Brooks Brothers in the Mall of America in Minnesota. See Franco's teaser here. Franco's film was screened at Richard Hugo House in March.

Dianne Bilyak, "Questions of Faith: Spencer Reece", Poetry Society of America

Henri Cole, "Emerging Poet: On Spencer Reece", The Academy of American Poets

Sonya Chung, "Post-40 Bloomer: Spencer Reece, The Poet's Tale", The Millions, May 2, 2012

Chauncey Mabe, "Spencer Reece Goes from the Mall to Episcopal Priesthood", JuneauEmpire, January 25, 2008

Spencer Reece Poems at Blackbird, The New Yorker, The Poetry Center at Smith College, Poetry Foundation, Poetry Magazine

Spencer Reece on FaceBook

Spencer Reece Reads from The Road to Emmaus (Video)