Iraqi poet Dunya Mikhail immigrated to the United States in 1996 after increasing harassment over her poetry, which confronts war and exile with subversive depictions of suffering. In 2001 she was awarded the UN Human Rights Award for Freedom of Writing. (28 minutes)
Born in Dublin, Ireland, Eavan Boland is one of the foremost voices in Irish literature. Her ten volumes of poetry include Against Love Poetry, which was a New York Times notable book, and New Collected Poems. She is also a noted editor and translator. Her awards include a Lannan Foundation Award and an American Ireland Fund Literary Award. She is a professor of English and Creative Writing at Stanford University. (27 minutes)
Born in St. Petersburg, Russia but raised in New York City, Eugene Ostashevsky is a poet, scholar and reckless metaphysician. A book of his poetry, The Off-Centaur, was published by Germ Folios, and his volume The Compleat Unraveller will be published in 2005 by Ugly Duckling Press. He is editor and co-translator of the forthcoming anthology, OBERIU and the Chinars: Russian Absurdism, 1927-1941. Ostashevsky won the 2003 Wytter Bynner Poetry Translation Fellowship for his translations from Russian. He teaches at NYU. (45 minutes)
"Seductive, edgy, gothic and sublime, these Poems haunt the body as much as the soul," wrote Beckian Fritz Goldberg of Frank Paino's second book, Out of Eden. Lynda Hull has said of his first book, The Rapture of Matter, "These fearless Poems go where they must with a visionary fervor, guiding the reader through the darkest passages of experience and reminding us of the best, most redemptive qualities of the human". Frank Paino was born in Cleveland in 1960 and lives in Berea, Ohio. He formerly published under the name Frankie Paino before changing genders. (29 minutes)
Born in San Francisco in 1930, world-renowned poet, essayist, and environmentalist Gary Snyder has published sixteen books of poetry and prose, and received the Pulitzer Prize in 1974 for Turtle Island. Snyder has traveled widely and lived for extended periods of time in Japan, where he studied and practiced Rinzai Zen. He is currently a professor at University of California, Davis. (29 minutes)
Geoffrey G. OŐBrien is the author of ŇGreen and GrayÓ and ŇThe Guns and Flags Project,Ó and co-author of Ň2A.Ó His third collection, ŇMetropole,Ó is forthcoming from The University of California Press in 2011. (28 minutes)
This reading celebrates the publication of "ascension," the first book of Poems by giovanni singleton, coordinator of Lunch Poems. She has recently been selected by the Poetry Society of America for its biennial New American Poets series. singleton is a recipient of a New Langton Bay Area Award Show for Literature and has been a fellow at Squaw Valley Community of Writers, Cave Canem: A Workshop for African-American Poets, and the Napa Valley WritersŐ Conference. She is founding editor of "nocturnes (re)view," a critically acclaimed journal dedicated to artists and writers of the African Diaspora and other contested spaces. (29 minutes)
Knoxville, Tennessee native Graham Foust is the author of four books of poetry: As in Every Deafness, Leave the Room to Itself, Necessary Stranger, and A Mouth in California. David Olsen says FoustŐs ŇPoems are carefully contained so that we can find a place in them.Ó He directs the MFA Program in Creative Writing at Saint Mary's College in Moraga, CA.
Harryette Mullen admits to being "licked all over by the English tongue." Her fifth poetry collection, Sleeping with the Dictionary, published by UC Press, was a finalist for the National Book Award and for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Poetry for its "gleeful pursuit of the ludic pleasure of word games." Her work combines the experimentation of the French OULIPO group with an American funk and political awareness. Mullen is associate professor of English and African American Studies at UCLA. Her other books include Muse & Drudge and Trimmings. (28 minutes)
Born in Brooklyn to an Iraqi father and a Syrian mother, Jack Marshall explores the cultures and cities that shaped his artistic awakening. (27 minutes)
Jessica Fisher's Frail-Craft was the winner of the prestigious 2006 Yale Series of Younger Poets competition. She is a doctoral candidate in English at U.C. Berkeley and is coeditor, with Robert Hass, of The Addison Street Anthology, which chronicles Berkeley's rich poetic history. (27 minutes)
Rich in its landscapes and its search for personal discovery, John MatthiasŐ poetry encompasses vast territories of history and culture. He has published more than twenty-five books, twelve of which are poetry, and is the editor of Notre Dame Review. This is his first visit to the west coast in over twenty-five years. (28 minutes)
Hosted by Robert Hass and University Librarian Thomas C. Leonard, this event features distinguished faculty and staff from a wide range of disciplines introducing and reading a favorite Poems. (45 minutes)
Hosted by Robert Hass and University Librarian Thomas C. Leonard, the kickoff features distinguished new members of the UC Berkeley English Department faculty introducing and reading a favorite Poems. (28 minutes)
A prominent figure in the wide-open poetry movement of the 50s, Lawrence Ferlinghetti gave voice to a generation that changed the face of poetry forever. Challenging the elite's definition of art and the artist's role, Ferlinghetti founded City Lights Bookstore, providing a meeting place for writers, artists, and intellectuals for over a half century. Ferlinghetti's A Coney Island of the Mind continues to be the most popular poetry book in the United States. His most recent work, Americus Book I was published by New Directions in 2004. Tune in for this reading before a live audience at UC Berkeley. (28 minutes)
World-acclaimed young poet Li Young Lee fuses memory, family, culture, and history in his work. Meditating on the vulnerability of humanity, Lee produces passionate and profound lyrical poetry. (28 minutes)
Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Lisa Chen earned a BA from UC Berkeley and an MFA from the University of Iowa. Her debut collection of poetry, mouth, received a 2009 award from the Association for Asian American Studies. Sesshu Foster says that ChenŐs work Ňstartles with soulful complexity.Ó (28 minutes)
Dynamic poet Luis Rodriguez speaks of Urban Life in an accessible voice. With charismatic energy, Rodriguez engages the audience by telling his poignant life stories. (27 minutes)
Lyn Hejinian is the author or co-author of 14 books of poetry, including most recently "My Life in the Nineties" and "The Fatalist," as well as the award-winning "My Life." Poetry Flash has described My Life as a work that has "real, almost hypnotic power, obvious intelligence, and [is] astonishingly beautiful." (36 minutes)
Maxine Hong Kingston burst on the literary scene in 1976 with her book, "The Woman Warrior". A UC Berkeley graduate and professor, she has delighted audiences with books such as "China Men" and "Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book". In recent years she has started to write more poetry, including "To Be the Poet" from Harvard University Press. (55 minutes)