Marie Howe, New York State Poet (2012-2014) and Sydney Lea, Vermont Poet
Laureate (2011-2014) will read from their work and discuss the role of poetry
in society on Tuesday, September 17, 2013 at 8:00 p.m. in the Huxley Theatre,
NYS Museum, Cultural Education Center in downtown Albany. Earlier that same day
at 4:15 p.m., the poets will present an informal seminar in the Standish Room,
Science Library, on the University at Albany uptown campus. The events are free
and open to the public, and are cosponsored by the New York State Writers
Institute and Friends of the New York State Library.
Marie Howe and Sydney Lea, reigning state poets of New York and Vermont, will
present a joint reading and discuss the role of poetry in today's society.
Appointed State Poet (2012 – 2014) by Governor Andrew Cuomo under the
auspices of the NYS Writers Institute, Marie Howe is the author of three
collections of poetry:
The Kingdom of Ordinary Time (2008),
What
the Living Do (1997), and
The Good Thief (1988), which was
selected by Margaret Atwood for the National Poetry Series. The Rochester
native and New York City resident is also the past recipient of the Lavan
Younger Poets Prize of the American Academy of Poets. In 1995, she coedited the
bestselling anthology,
In the Company of My Solitude: American Writing from
the AIDS Pandemic (with Michael Klein), which helped many AIDS victims
"find their voices" as poets and storytellers. She currently teaches
at NYU where she is launching a Fall 2013 course entitled "Poetry
Everywhere," an immersive production class which seeks to put poetry in
unexpected New York City public spaces.
Howe is widely admired for poetry that seeks answers to metaphysical
questions in ordinary day-to-day experience. In her work, little incidents and
inconsequential memories help to shed light on the nature of the soul and the
self, as well as the meaning of life, death, love, pain, hope, despair, sin,
virtue, solitude, community, impermanence and the eternal. Playwright Eve
Ensler said of her most recent collection,
The Kingdom of Ordinary Time,
"These poems made me gasp. Each one a revelation, a lifeline, a domestic
galaxy. This is the poetry of our times, a guide to living on the brink of the
mystical and the mundane."
Appointed Poet Laureate by Governor Peter Shumlin under the auspices of the
Vermont Arts Council, Sydney Lea is the author of eleven collections of poetry,
including
I Was Thinking of Beauty (2013);
Growing Old in Poetry:
Two Poets, Two Lives (with Delaware Poet Laureate Fleda Brown, 2013);
Pursuit of a Wound (2000), a Pulitzer Prize finalist;
To the Bone: New
and Selected Poems (1996), a co-winner of the Poet's Prize; and
Prayer
for the Little City (1991). The
American Book Review said of
To
the Bone, "It's past time that this poet's memorable best work should
be known and praised and analyzed and loved as well as Frost's is."
Much of his work focuses on the mystery of the natural world and the
physical details of life in a rural setting. He recently published the essay
collection,
A North Country Life: Tales of Woodsmen, Waters, and Wildlife
(2013). The
Wall Street Journal reviewer said, "Sydney Lea is a
fisherman, a hunter, a philosopher, a trainer of bird dogs, an interpreter of
the past and a collector of stories. This abundance of experience shows up to
good effect.... He writes memorably. His stories ring true."
The founder and long-time editor of the influential literary magazine,
The
New England Review, Lea is the recipient of fellowships from the
Guggenheim, Rockefeller, and Fulbright Foundations.
Lea is a dedicated environmental activist and serves currently as President
of Downeast Lakes Land Trust, an organization dedicated to creating a
million-acre wildlife preserve on the border between Maine and the province of
New Brunswick. He also serves as President/Treasurer of the adult literacy
organization, Central Vermont Adult Basic Education.
For additional information, contact the Writers Institute at 518-442-5620 or
online at
http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst.
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