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How the ancient Greek 'pop star' Sappho influenced modern culture on Access Utah

A graphic includes a picture of someone with medium-length brown hair standing in front of a poster that reads "Sappho on Tour." Beneath the photo, text reads "C.R. Grimmer on Access Utah." There is a drawing of a tree on the right hand side of the graphic.
Spencer Wilkinson
/
Utah Public Radio
Photo by Jack Burton

Utah State University Assistant Professor of English C.R. Grimmer recently presented “Sappho on Tour: How a ‘Pop Star’ of Ancient Greece Influenced Modern Culture,” for the USU Office of Research’s Aggie Talks series.

Grimmer discussed the impact that the Greek poet Sappho had on the ancient and modern world, from literature and lyricism to ideas of individualism, democracy, and desire. They also shared poetry from their new book, "Poets as Public Scholars: Contemporary Poetics in an Age of Social Media."

Grimmer joins us today to talk about their book, the presentation, and The Poetry Vlog, among other topics.

C.R. Grimmer is an award-winning poet, scholar, and digital humanities educator whose work bridges poetry, public scholarship, and literary criticism. They are the author of "The Lyme Letters: Poems" (winner of the Walt McDonald First Book Award), the chapbook "O–(ezekiel's wife)," and the peer-reviewed, open access, multimedia book "Poets as Public Scholars: Contemporary Poetics in an Age of Social Media." They are also the co-editor with Benjamin Gunsberg of "A Writer's Guide to Multimodal Poetry," which will release in 2027.

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Tom Williams worked as a part-time UPR announcer for a few years and joined Utah Public Radio full-time in 1996. He is a proud graduate of Uintah High School in Vernal and Utah State University (B. A. in Liberal Arts and Master of Business Administration.) He grew up in a family that regularly discussed everything from opera to religion to politics. He is interested in just about everything and loves to engage people in conversation, so you could say he has found the perfect job as host “Access Utah.” He and his wife Becky, live in Logan.