Tomaz Salamun, the leading Central European poet, will
read from his work at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 4, in the Neilson Library Browsing Room. Sponsored by the Poetry Center at Smith College, this event is free and open to the public.

Author of 25 volumes of poems in his native Slovenian, Tomaz Salamun has received many prizes in Europe, and his work has been translated into nearly a dozen languages.

"The Selected Poems of Tomaz Salamun," edited and, in large part, translated by Charles Simic, was the poet's debut collection in English, brought out in 1988 as part of Ecco Press's prestigious Modern European Poetry series. It was followed by "The Shepherd, The Hunter" (1992), translated by Sonja Kravanja, and "The Four Questions of Melancholy" (1997), a greatly expanded collection of some 200 poems that was edited by Christopher Merrill, another of Salamun's poet-translators. "Feast," Salamun's fourth volume in English, is due from Harcourt Brace this year.

Salamun has won exuberant praise from many American poets, including James Tate, Robert Creeley, Robert Hass, who celebrates his "love of the poetics of rebellion," and Jorie Graham, who calls his work "one of Europe's great philosophical wonders."

His poems are wild bursts of linguistic leaping, equally at home reflecting terror, delight, and the mundane.

Salamun was born in Zagreb, Croatia, raised in Koper, Slovenia, and now makes his home in Ljubljana. He is in the United States for a brief reading tour which, in addition to his Smith College appearance on April 4, will include a reading sponsored by the Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing at the University of Massachusetts at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 6, in Memorial Hall.

An abundance of poems in English translation, combined with Salamun's penchant for variety and spontaneity, promise to make these two Valley readings altogether different events. Fervent Salamun fans-and there are many in the area-will want to attend both.

The Smith College reading will be followed by bookselling and signing. For more information, contact Cindy Furtek in the Poetry Center office at (413) 585-4891 or Ellen Doré Watson, Director, at (413) 585-3368.

March 21, 2000