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Poet Gerald Stern to Read at Smith College
NORTHAMPTON, Mass. -- Smith College will
present a poetry reading by Gerald Stern at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept.
23, in Wright Hall Auditorium. The event is free, open to the public
and wheelchair accessible.
Stern is an American master. Born in 1925
in Pittsburgh, Penn., Stern himself had no mentors. He grew up in a home
without books, the child of immigrant parents, and studied philosophy
and political science in college. His first book was published in his
48th year, earning him instant critical acclaim. "I thought you
read poetry," he says, "and, like a spider, you did it from
the threads of your own belly. So it made me wait for a long time before
I got some success. Decades. But at the same time, it made my poetry,
whatever came, me."
When he burst on the scene in the early
seventies, the Chicago Tribune Book World anointed Stern "the most
startling and tender poet to emerge in America in a decade." From
the start, his poems reflected a deep connection to the natural world
and to places and things abandoned. He has gone on to write 13 books
of poetry that ponder the weight of history and the buoyancy of memory,
the casual miracles of relationships and the endless possibilities for
joy. They include "Lucky Life," the 1977 Academy of American
Poets Lamont Poetry Selection; "This Time: New and Selected Poems," winner
of the 1998 National Book Award; and, most recently "American Sonnets." Stern's
many other accolades include a Guggenheim fellowship, three National
Endowment for the Arts awards, a PEN award, a fellowship from the Academy
of Arts and Letters and the Ruth Lilly Prize for Lifetime Achievement.
In addition to many years on the faculty
at the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop, Stern has taught at Columbia
University, New York University, Sarah Lawrence College and the University
of Pittsburgh. He served as the first poet laureate of New Jersey, where
he continues to write both poetry and prose, including the forthcoming
memoir, "What I Can't Bear Losing."
Stern is, as William Matthews wrote, "a
poet of ferocious heart and rasping sweetness." His work -- like
Whitman's, a transformative celebration of the stuff of daily existence
-- is as gritty, lush, rageful, sticky, hilarious and humbling as life
itself.
The reading will be followed by book selling
and signing. For more information, call Cindy Furtek in the Poetry Center
office at (413) 585-4891 or Ellen Dor é Watson, director, at (413)
585-3368.
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Office of College
Relations
Smith College
Garrison Hall
Northampton, Massachusetts 01063 |
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Marti
Hobbes
News Assistant
T (413) 585-2190
F (413) 585-2174
mhobbes@email.smith.edu
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