T212.
International Poetry with New Directions Publishing
Status: Not Accepted
Thursday, March 9, 2023
3:20 pm to 4:35 pm
A poetry reading with four renowned international poets: Pamela Mordecai (Jamaica/Canada), Xi Chuan (China), Coral Bracho (Mexico), and Phoebe Giannisi (Greece). Poets will read their original poetry with their translator or with the moderator. As the United States has become increasingly xenophobic and insular in the past decade, it is crucial for readers and students, poets and writers, to hear voices from the wider world.
Participants
Jeffrey Yang is the author of Hey, Marfa (winner of the Southwest Book Award); Vanishing-Line; An Aquarium (winner of the PEN/Joyce Osterweil Award), and the new collection Line and Light. He is the translator of Bei Dao’s autobiography City Gate, Open Up and Liu Xiaobo's June Fourth Elegies.
Pamela Mordecai, born in Kingston, Jamaica, has published eight collections of poetry, five children’s books, short stories, a novel, a play for children, as well as the nonfiction book Culture and Customs of Jamaica. A Fierce Green Place: New and Selected Poems is her first book to appear in the US.
Phoebe Giannisi, born in Athens, Greece, is the author of seven books of poetry, including Homerica (chosen by Anne Carson as a favorite book of 2017 in The Paris Review) and Cicada, translated by Brian Sneeden. She is professor of architecture and cultural studies at the University of Thessaly.
Coral Bracho, born in Mexico City, has published several books of poems that have altered the landscape of Mexican poetry. Firefly Under the Tongue: Selected Poems and It Must Be a Misunderstanding are both translated by Forrest Gander.
Xi Chuan is one of China’s most celebrated poets, essayists, and literary translators. He is a professor at the International Writing Center at Beijing Normal University. Notes on the Mosquito: Selected Poems and Bloom & Other Poems are both translated by Lucas Klein.
