THE JOHN ASHBERY POETRY SERIES AT BARD COLLEGE PRESENTS THREE READINGS ON THURSDAYS IN MARCH
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—The John Ashbery Poetry Series at Bard College will present three readings on Thursdays, March 13, 20, and 27. The programs, free and open to the public, will begin at 6:30 p.m. in Room 102 of the F. W. Olin Humanities Building.
On Thursday, March 13, Ron Padgett and Anselm Berrigan will read from their recent works. Padgett’s books include New & Selected Poems; The Straight Line: Writings on Poetry and Poets; You Never Know; and Oklahoma Tough: My Father, King of Tulsa’s Bootleggers. He also edited World Poets and The Handbook of Poetic Forms and translated Complete Poems by Blaise Cendrars. In 1999 Padgett received an American Academy of Arts and Letters award for poetry. Berrigan is the author of several poetry collections, including Zero Star Hotel, Strangers in the Nest, Integrity & Dramatic Life, and In the Dream Hole (with Edmund Berrigan). His work has been published in Best American Poetry 2002, The Baffler, Purple, Ixnay, Tight, Ecopoets, and X-Connect. Berrigan teaches creative writing at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and works as a communications consultant at Baruch College.
On Thursday, March 20, Rod Smith and Heather Fuller will read from their recent works. Smith is the author of In Memory of My Theories, The Boy Poems, Protective Immediacy, The Good House, and, with Lisa Jarnot and Bill Luoma, New Mannerist Tricycle. His work has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Anthology of New American Poets, The Baffler, The Germ, The Gertrude Stein Awards, Java, New American Writing, Open City, Shenandoah, and Washington Review. He edits Aerial magazine, publishes Edge Books, and manages Bridge Street Books in Washington, D.C. Fuller has worked with nonprofits on poverty issues for the past eight years and edits poetry and book reviews for Washington Review. She is the author of two poetry collections published by Edge Books, perhaps this is a rescue fantasy and Dovecote, as well as two chapbooks, beggar and Eyeshot.
On Thursday, March 27, Heather Ramsdell
and Joan Retallack will read from their recent works. Ramsdell is the author of Lost Wax, which was selected for the National Poetry Series by James Tate. She cofounded the theater collaborative Brooklyn Drama Club, whose new play The Situation Room debuted last December. Her writing has appeared in An Anthology of New (American) Poets and American Poetry: The Next Generation, as well as various literary journals including Big Allis, Verse, Conjunctions, and Transcendental Friend. She lives in Brooklyn and is at work on a new collection, Vague Swimmers. Retallack is the author of seven poetry collections, including How To Do Things with Words, AFTERRIMAGES, and Errata Suite, which won the Columbia Book Award. Recent works include Mongrelisme: A Difficult Manual for Desperate Times and Memnoir, forthcoming in French translation from CIP Marseille. She received a Lannan Foundation Literary Grant for Poetry in 1998 and the 1996 America Award in Belles-Lettres for MUSICAGE: John Cage in Conversation with Joan Retallack. Retallack’s WESTORN CIV CONT'D, a limited edition artist’s book, was produced at Pyramid Atlantic Studios in 1995–96 with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts. The Poethical Wager and a book on Gertrude Stein are forthcoming from the University of California Press. Retallack is John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Professor of Humanities and codirector of the Workshop in Language and Thinking at Bard College.Since 1995, the John Ashbery Poetry Series has brought leading contemporary poets to Bard for readings and discussion in an intimate setting. The spring 2003 series continues in April with readings by Tina Darragh and P. Inman on Thursday, April 10; Mark Ford on Thursday, April 17; and Robert Creeley on Tuesday, April 29.
For further information about the series, call The Bard Center at 845-758-7425.
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