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Seattle
Arts & Lectures' annual Poetry Series features readings, audience Q&A, and book signings at INTIMAN
Theatre. 2008 Poetry Series
2/19/08 Li-Young Lee 2008 Series Sponsor: Live Historic The Poetry Series is presented by Seattle Arts & Lectures in collaboration with INTIMAN Theatre and Open Books: A Poem Emporium. Additional support is provided by the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation; The Boeing Company; the Dorsey & Whitney Foundation; a special gift from the Laura and Walter Hudson Foundation (John Crosby and Polly Hunter); International Examiner; the National Endowment for the Arts; the Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, City of Seattle; Poets & Writers, Inc.; Seattle Post-Intelligencer; and the Washington Poets Association. Hotel Sponsor: W Seattle Li-Young Lee “What characterizes Lee’s poetry is a certain humility . . . a willingness to let the sublime enter his field of concentration and take over, a devotion to language, a belief in its holiness.” — Gerald Stern Li-Young Lee is one of the most accomplished Asian American poets of our time. Born in 1957 in Jakarta, Indonesia, to Chinese parents, Lee’s early years were nomadic. Fleeing Indonesia to escape anti-Chinese sentiment, his family spent the next five years traveling throughout Asia before finally settling in the United States in 1964. The joys and sorrows of that time—of family, home, loss, exile, and love—permeate his work. He is the author of three volumes of poetry, and a fourth, Behind My Eyes, is due out in January 2008. Lee's honors include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Lannan Foundation, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. He lives in Chicago with his wife Donna, and their two sons. This event is supported by Poets & Writers, Inc. “A poet at the peak of her power . . . one of Ireland’s greatest, and among the best writing in English anywhere.”—Booklist Eavan Boland is one of the foremost female voices in Irish literature. Author of ten volumes of poetry and several books of prose, her work is noted for its attention to the daily lives of women—wives and mothers, in particular. Born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1944, Boland published her first poems in 1962, sparking a revolution in writing: “What was radical,” Boland says, “was that the objects of a literature became, in a short space of time, the authors of it. When women began to write the Irish poem, and made it answer to their lives, that was both renewing and disruptive.” Her most recent book, Domestic Violence, explores the tension between our instincts to nurture and our instincts toward violence, or, as she says, “the distance between living and imagining.” Boland’s awards include a Lannan Foundation Award in Poetry and an American Ireland Fund Literary Award. She is a professor of English at Stanford University. This event is supported by the Dorsey & Whitney Foundation. Lucille Clifton “From the wreckage of what is lost in life to such forces as cancer and terrorism, to the redemption of what remains, like birth and otherworldly assistance, Clifton's voice speaks truth and sings hope.” –Booklist Famed African American writer Lucille Clifton was born in Depew, New York, in 1936, and has become one of the preeminent writers of her generation. She is an award-winning writer in nearly every genre: poetry, fiction, memoir, and children's books. Her work is precise, spare, and evocative, focusing on family, race, and the experience of women. "Writing is a way of continuing to hope,” she says. “Perhaps for me it is a way of remembering I am not alone." Her many honors include an Emmy Award from the American Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, a Lannan Literary Award, two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Shelley Memorial Award, and the 2007 Ruth Lilly Prize. In 1999, she was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. She has served as Poet Laureate for the State of Maryland and is currently Distinguished Professor of Humanities at St. Mary's College of Maryland. This event is supported by Poets & Writers, Inc. Edward Hirsch “Whether he's contemplating Homer or the Holocaust, standing transfixed before a painting by Agnes Martin, or holding a handful of fresh figs, Hirsch embraces language as a mystical force, and he and his readers truly are transported.” –Booklist Edward Hirsch is perhaps best known for the runaway bestseller, How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry (1999). This accessible guide to the world of poetry won the hearts of poets and non-poets alike and catapulted Hirsch into the spotlight. Born in Chicago in 1950, he attended Grinnell College and the University of Pennsylvania, where he received a Ph.D. in folklore (the residue of which we find in his contemporary takes on classic myths). He is also the author of six collections of poetry, including Wild Gratitude (1987), which garnered him a National Book Critics Circle Award. He is the recipient of a MacArthur “genius” award and of a Guggenheim Fellowship. He lives in New York City where he is the president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Established in 2000, SAL’s annual Poetry Series has become one of Seattle’s most important and highly anticipated literary programs. Poetry is an essential literary form, but poets often receive less attention than prose writers. In creating the series, SAL recognized that, as a literary organization, it had a responsibility to ensure that this great art form thrived in our community. For information about poets who have appeared in the Poetry Series, please visit our author archive.
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