The greatest ownership of all is to glance around and understand.
-William Stafford
Scot Siegel
I am both a poet and city planner. Poetry is an essential creative outlet from my work in planning. It also informs my approach in working with citizens. As a planner, I am trying to tell the story of a community according to the vision or aspirations of its citizens. An effective plan must connect past to present, reconcile different values and points of view, and serve as a roadmap for the common good. As a poet, or artist, one is free to focus on the individual, raise questions out of order, and leave things unsettled and open to interpretation.
Everyone has the capacity to change the world through art. Art bears witness and gives voice. It heals and praises, mourns and celebrates. Art conveys that which cannot be heard on the news or picked up from popular culture. But art should be accessible too. Poetry, for example, should clarify, not obfuscate, the truth while pushing the envelope of literary accomplishment and challenging notions of political correctness. The best literature blurs the line between everyday life and high art, and moves us to repair the world.
Everyone has the capacity to change the world through art. Art bears witness and gives voice. It heals and praises, mourns and celebrates. Art conveys that which cannot be heard on the news or picked up from popular culture. But art should be accessible too. Poetry, for example, should clarify, not obfuscate, the truth while pushing the envelope of literary accomplishment and challenging notions of political correctness. The best literature blurs the line between everyday life and high art, and moves us to repair the world.
Bio |
Scot Siegel was born in Oakland, California. He has lived in the Pacific Northwest since 1987 and resides in Lake Oswego, Oregon. Siegel is the author of three full-length poetry collections and two poetry chapbooks, most recently The Constellation of Extinct Stars and Other Poems (Salmon Poetry, 2016) and Thousands Flee California Wildflowers (Salmon Poetry, 2012). He has received artist residencies with Playa at Summer Lake and Oregon State University's Spring Creek Project, and awards and commendations from Nimrod International, Aesthetica (UK), the Oregon State Library, and the Oregon Poetry Association. He is also a city planner (www.siegelplanning.com) and has received awards for his work with small towns and cities across the western United States. Siegel has a Bachelor of Science in Geography from Oregon State University, where he completed the University Honors Program, and a Master’s in Urban and Regional Planning from Portland State University.
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Awards and Commendations |
Playa at Summer Lake Residency Awards, Oregon, 2012, 2015 and 2017
Spring Creek Project Writer's Residency, Oregon State Univ., 2016 Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize, Nimrod International, Honorable Mention, 2012; Philip Levine, Final Judge Tri-Met, Orange Linings Project, Portland-to-Milwaukie Light Rail Transit; six poems selected from over 1000 entries for permanent public art installation Aesthetica Magazine (UK) Creative Works Contest, Finalist, 2010; and, Commendation, 2009 Nimrod International Pablo Neruda Poetry Prize, Semi-Finalist, 2008 Pushcart Prize nominations in 2009, 2011, and 2015 Best of the Net Anthology nomination, 2010 Oregon State Library and Poetry Northwest listed Some Weather one of 150 Outstanding Oregon Poetry Books Oregon Poetry Association, First Prize, Poet’s Choice, 2008 Squaw Valley Community of Writers-Poetry, 2007 Richard Chambers Environmental Grant, 1990; awarded for senior honors thesis (creative writing) Oregon State University Provost’s Literary Award, Honorable Mention, 1990. |
