Poet Galway Kinnell gives the eighth annual Joshua
Ringel Memorial Reading at 3 p.m. on Sunday, April 17, in
Hodson Hall on the Homewood campus. The event is
co-sponsored by the
Center for Talented Youth.
Kinnell is recognized as one of the great living
practitioners of American poetry. His Selected
Poems, published in 1980, won both the National Book
Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Kinnell is a former MacArthur
"genius grant" fellow and state poet of Vermont.
"Kinnell is a poet of the rarest ability," writes Liz
Rosenberg of The Boston Globe, "the kind who comes
once or twice in a generation, who can flesh out music,
raise the spirits and break the heart." Vogue
magazine states that "Galway Kinnell mesmerizes his
audience — in person as well as on the page."
As Kinnell himself has said of his craft, "Poetry is
the singing of what it is to be on our own planet."
Kinnell's volumes of poetry include A New Selected
Poems (2000), a finalist for the National Book Award;
Imperfect Thirst (1996); When One Has Lived a
Long Time Alone (1990); Selected Poems (1980);
and other volumes. He has also translated Rainer Maria
Rilke and, when not at home in Vermont or on the reading
circuit, he is the Erich Maria Remarque Professor of
Creative Writing at New York University.
Preceding this year's reading, cellist Gita Ladd will
perform J.S. Bach's Suite for Unaccompanied Cello No. 5.
Doors will close for the performance, which begins at 3
p.m., and reopen at its conclusion after about 20 minutes
so any latecomers may be seated for Kinnell's reading. A
reception and book signing follow the reading.
Joining CTY as co-sponsors are Gilman School,
Baltimore, and Teachers & Writers Collaborative, New York.
The cello performance, reading and reception are all free
and open to the public; tickets are not needed. For more
information, call 410-735-6009.