Anne Carson, Robert Currie, Nick Flynn, and Sam Anderson To Read From Sappho's Poetry on October 18
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—The Classical Studies Program at Bard College presents Bracko: A reading of Sappho’s poetry by Anne Carson, Robert Currie, Nick Flynn, and Sam Anderson. Free and open to the public, the reading will be held on Saturday, October 18 at 6 p.m. in Olin Auditorium. Bracko presents the lyric poetry of Sappho, the ancient Greek poet known to many English-speaking readers through Anne Carson’s translation If Not, Winter. In addition to welcoming Sappho’s most distinguished translator to Bard, the event celebrates an extraordinary moment in the history of Sappho’s poetry. Sappho, whose bittersweet poetry on love, longing, and loss has survived the millennia in tantalizing fragments, made headlines in the international press this year because of the rare discovery of two previously unknown poems. Bracko is the closing event of a full-day colloquium, Sappho: New Voices, that will be hosted at Bard College on October 18. The colloquium brings together a panel of experts to lead one of the first public discussions of this important new find, reevaluating the context, meaning, and implications of Sappho’s poetry and her literary world. To find out more about the colloquium, please visit: http://classicalstudies.bard.edu/events/. The event is sponsored by James H. Ottaway Jr. For further information, please contact Lauren Curtis at [email protected] or (845) 758-7282.
Anne Carson, a classics scholar, poet, essayist, critic, and translator, has won international acclaim across genres. Named a MacArthur “Genius” Fellow in 2000, Carson has published 18 books that defy traditional literary genres—merging poetry, prose, fiction, nonfiction, and translation. Born in Canada, she teaches ancient Greek and is currently Visiting Distinguished Writer in Residence at Bard College. Robert Currie is an artist working in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and New York City. An award-winning American writer, playwright, and poet, Nick Flynn has worked as a ship’s captain, an electrician, and as a caseworker with homeless adults. His most recent book is The Reenactments. A professor in the creative writing program at the University of Houston, he splits his time between Houston and Brooklyn. Sam Anderson is an American book reviewer and author. He is the critic at large for The New York Times Magazine, and was previously a book critic at New York Magazine. In 2007 he received the Balakian Award for Excellence in Criticism from the National Book Critics Circle.
PHOTO AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOAD AT: http://www.bard.edu/news/pressphotos/
CAPTION INFO: Poet Anne Carson to read from Sappho at Bard College on October 18.
PHOTO CREDIT: Einar Falur Ingolfsson
#
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Sappho: New Voices
Saturday, October 18
Bard College, Olin Hall 204
Annandale-on-Hudson, New York
10 a.m.
Introduction
Lauren Curtis (Bard College) and Robert Cioffi (Bard College)
10:45 a.m.–12:15 p.m.
Session 1: Gender and Performance
Timothy Power (Rutgers University): “Performance Scenarios for the New Poems of Sappho”
Melissa Mueller (University of Massachusetts Amherst): “Recentering Epic Nostos: Gender and Genre in the Brothers Poem”
12:15 p.m.–1:30 p.m.
Lunch break
1:30 p.m.–3:00 p.m.
Session 2: Sappho and Society
Kurt Raaflaub (Brown University): “A High-class Trader, Courtesan, and Poetess, a Tyrant, and Archaic Greek-Eastern Interaction”
Deborah Boedeker (Brown University): “Hera and Now”
3:00 p.m.–3:30 p.m.
Coffee break
3:30 p.m.–5:00 p.m.
Session 3: Religious Poetics
Timothy Barnes (Princeton University): “Sappho's daimon: a Reading of the Fourth Stanza”
Albert Henrichs (Harvard University): “What’s in a Prayer? Sappho’s Way with Words”
5:00 p.m.–5:30 p.m.
Round table discussion
6 p.m.
Evening performance
Olin Auditorium
Bracko: A reading of Sappho by Anne Carson, Robert Currie, Nick Flynn, and Sam Anderson
###
Recent Press Releases:
- Bard Conservatory Orchestra Presents Concert with Maestro Leon Botstein on December 14
- Bard College Conservatory of Music Presents “Come Out of the Cold: A Winter Cabaret” Featuring Countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo on December 20
- Bard Early College Receives Grant from Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to Support Accelerated Science Education Across its New York City Campuses
- First US Survey of Artist Stan Douglas in Over Two Decades Opens June 2025 at the Center for Curatorial Studies’ Hessel Museum of Art