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TITLE: Poetry Reading by James Tate and Jorie Graham
SPEAKER: James Tate, Jorie Graham
EVENT DATE: 12/06/2007
RUNNING TIME: 82 minutes
DESCRIPTION:
U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Simic introduced Pulitzer Prize-winning poets Jorie Graham and James Tate, who read from their works.
Graham's latest book is the widely acclaimed "Overlord: Poems" and Tate's latest collection is "Return to the City of White Donkeys." Both poets are unusual in their approach to poetry--Graham for her loquacious lines and artistic investigation of topical themes and Tate for his surreal and accessible, and often humorous, poems. Both have won high honors for their works.
Speaker Biography: James Tate is on the faculty at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he teaches creative writing. In 1992, he won the Pulitzer Prize for his "Selected Poems," and in 1994, the National Book Award for "A Worshipful Company of Fletchers." He is also a Yale Series of Younger Poets award winner, and has won fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. Tate's work is clear, surprising, and has a wide appeal. "Return to the City of White Donkeys" has been compared to "Spoon River Anthology" for its cast of interesting and intriguing characters.
Speaker Biography: Jorie Graham is ending a term as the William B. Hart Poet in Residence at the American Academy in Rome. She teaches at Harvard University, where she is Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory, a position held previously by the poet Seamus Heaney. Her book "The Dream of the Unified Field" won the Pulitzer Prize in 1996. In 1990, she received a MacArthur Fellowship. Her latest book, "Overlord: Poems," takes place in 1944 on Omaha Beach in Normandy.