Andre F. Peltier is a Pushcart Nominee and a Lecturer III at Eastern Michigan University where he teaches literature and writing. He lives in Ypsilanti, Michigan, with his wife and children. His poetry has recently appeared in various publications like CP Quarterly, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Provenance Journal, Lavender and Lime Review, About Place, Novus Review, Fiery Scribe, and Fahmidan Journal, and most recently in Magpie Literary Journal, The Brazos Review, and Idle Ink. andrefpeltier.com Twitter: aandrefpeltier
In his free time, Andre obsesses over soccer and comic books. He is currently attempting to get back in shape for what will inevitably be another less than satisfying soccer season.
Read Andre’s work in this issue:
Les Bricoleurs et Le Jeu / Fireside Chats
Andre says: I have been teaching writing and literature at Eastern Michigan University since 1998. Although I have been writing since high school, I only started submitting my work places about a year ago. Since then, my poetry has appeared in many online and print journals.
I often focus on the intersection of nostalgia and pop culture, but I also have a strong focus on issues of social justice and postmodern theory. These particular poems confront issues within that postmodern framework. “Les Bricoleurs et Le Jeu” is a direct response to Derrida’s “Structure, Sign, and Play in the Discourse of the Human Sciences.” The bricoleur, or the bricklayer, is what Derrida suggests the artist is. The artist, or specifically in my case, the poet, is a sort of DIY creator using the basic tools on hand to create seemingly new things. The jeu, or play, is the instability of language and the fun we can have with it due to its constant differals.
“Fireside Chats” connects Franklin Roosevelt’s attempts to interact with a nameless, faceless America via his radio addresses to the act of creation and specifically to the act of writing poetry; we send our thoughts or ideas into a black void of journals and readers hoping to make connections with a readership we never meet.
By interacting with the past, my works transplant the ideologies and historical concerns into a contemporary setting while playing with the aesthetics of previous generations. I want to have fun with their philosophies as they are re-envisioned for our contemporary readership.
Riddled with Arrows 5.2: “Spotlight 2022”
Foreword | Contributors
Meet the Features | Meet the Work
Previous | Continue