Poetry Center to Present Reading October 13

The Poetry Center at Smith College presents renowned African-American poet Yusef Komunyakaa reading with younger African-American poet Forrest Hamer. The event, which is free and open to the public, will take place at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, October 13, in the Neilson Library Browsing Room.

Born in Louisiana and a veteran of the Vietnam War, Komunyakaa, who is currently a professor of creative writing at Princeton University, has published nine books, including "Neon Vernacular," which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1993.

In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, Komunyakaa won the Thomas Forcade Award in 1991, the Hanes Poetry Prize in 1997 and was nominated in 1993 for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

His newest book, "Thieves of Paradise," was published in March of this year. The Kenyon Review noted that, "Quite simply, Komunyakaa is one of the most extraordinary poets writing today....He takes on the most complex moral issues, the most harrowing ugly subjects of our American life. His voice, whether it embodies the specific experiences of a black man, a soldier in Vietnam, or a child in Bogalusa, La., is universal. It shows us in ever deeper ways what it is to be human."

Komunyakaa is joined in this reading by psychologist Forrest Hamer of Oakland, Calif., whose first collection of verse,"Call and Response," was published in 1995. Of Hamer's work, Komunyakaa writes, "His best poems are calls into our modern wilderness that demand heartfelt responses; they are challenges to us to connect through the acceptance of our personal and public histories....Seldom do we witness such poetic surety in a first book."

These two important poets-both of whom write on themes of place; history and memory; love, sex and sexuality; black manhood and masculinity; loss and joy; and the struggle to find a community-are brought together for the first time at Smith College. Bookselling and signing will follow the reading.