August 12, 2005

The Reason for Rhyme

By BURTON BOLLAG

This summer students headed for Smith College are unlikely to be lying on the beach and breezing through Nickel and Dimed or Fast Food Nation -- two best sellers that have been among the most common summer reading assignments for incoming freshmen at American institutions.

That's because incoming Smith students were asked to read Kettle Bottom, by Diane Gilliam Fisher, a collection of poetry published in 2004 about West Virginia coal miners in the 1920s.

Choosing poetry for

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