- Photo by Julie Empric
- Jeanne and Peter Meinke at Old Northeast Tavern.
In April of 2007, Creative Loafing published the first "Poet's Notebook" by Peter Meinke, Poet Laureate of St. Petersburg. Since then, we've run more than 150 of Peter's columns. His lucid, humane perspective on the world, and the accompanying line drawings by his wife, Jeanne, have won him devoted fans and multiple awards.
Now, thanks to the University of Tampa Press, those fans (Meinkettes? Meinkenians?) can find all their favorite columns in one handy volume: Truth and Affection: The "Poet's Notebook" Columns from Creative Loafing.
Big (488 pages!) and beautiful (with a glossy green cover featuring Jeanne's drawing of a slightly bemused butterfly couple), it's a collection to cherish (and I'm not just saying that because I wrote the Foreword). The columns range from his 2007 debut, "March Madness: The War We Should Be Fighting," to "Double Major" from Aug., 2013.
In the latter, he suggests a new kind of curriculum — one that would augment STEM I (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) with something he calls STEM II: a course of study in "Symmetry, Truth, Empathy and Meaning."
With the publication of Truth and Affection, STEM II has its own textbook.
And all you Meinkophiles now know what to put on your Christmas list.
The book is so new it's not yet listed on the University of Tampa Press website. But it is possible to make phone orders at 813-253-6266. The price is $25 plus handling.
