THE JOHN ASHBERY POETRY SERIES AT BARD PRESENTS READINGS BY JOHN ASHBERY AND TOM RAWORTH ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—The John Ashbery Poetry Series at Bard will present readings by John Ashbery and Tom Raworth on Thursday, February 20. Both poets will read from their respective works. The program, free and open to the public, will begin at 6:30 p.m. in Room 102 of the F. W. Olin Humanities Building.
John Ashbery, the Charles P. Stevenson Jr. Professor of Languages and Literature at Bard, was made an officer of the Légion d'Honneur by the French government in 2002. He was named the poet laureate of New York State for 2001–02. In addition to receiving the Wallace Stevens Award from the Academy of American Poets in 2001, he is the recipient of the National Book Critics Circle Award, a National Book Award, and a Pulitzer Prize for his Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror, published in 1975. His newest poetry collection, Chinese Whispers, was published in October 2002. Other collections include As Umbrellas Follow Rain; Your Name Here; Other Traditions; Some Trees; The Tennis Court Oath; Rivers and Mountains; Shadow Train; April Galleons; Hotel Lautréamont; And the Stars Were Shining; Can You Hear, Bird; Wakefulness; and Girls on the Run. Ashbery is also the author of three plays; a novel (with James Schuyler); Reported Sightings: Art Chronicles 1957–1987; articles on art and translation; and verse set to music. Other awards and honors received by Ashbery include the Bollingen Prize in Poetry; MacArthur Foundation Fellowship; Common Wealth Award in Literature, Modern Language Association; Horst Bienek Prize, Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts, Munich; Antonio Feltrinelli Prize for Literature, Rome; Chevalier des Arts et Lettres (awarded by France); Robert Frost Medal, Poetry Society of America; and the Gold Medal for Poetry, American Academy of Arts and Letters. Ashbery also served as chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 1988.
Tom Raworth
was born and grew up in London. During the 1970s he traveled and worked in the United States and Mexico, returning to England in 1977 to be Resident Poet at King's College, Cambridge. Since 1966 he has published more than forty books and pamphlets of poetry, prose, and translations. His graphic work has been shown in France, Italy, and the United States, and he has collaborated and performed with musicians, painters, and other poets. In 1991 he was invited to teach at the University of Cape Town, where he was the first European writer to visit in thirty years. Raworth is the recipient of the Alice Hunt Bartlett Prize and the Cholmondeley Award. Among his recent books are Tottering State; Landscaping the Future; Meadow; Etruscan Reader V; and Clean and Well Lit: Selected Poems, 1987–1995.Since 1995, the John Ashbery Poetry Series has been bringing leading contemporary poets to Bard for readings and discussion in an intimate setting. This year the series is organized by John Ashbery, Ann Lauterbach, Joan Retallack, and Robert Kelly. Other readings planned for spring 2003 include Heather Fuller and Rod Smith on March 20; Tina Darragh and Peter Inman on April 10; Mark Ford on April 17; and Robert Creeley on April 29.
For further information about the series, call The Bard Center at 845-758-7425.
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(2.11.03)