Spring Series 2014

John Hennessy
February 12th, Wednesday, 8:00 p.m.
Amherst Books (8 Main Street)
Major Jackson writes, "In his new collection, Coney Island Pilgrims, John Hennessy does more than catalogue the things of this world; he sanctifies them: bruised strawberries, Kangols, an unleashed pit bull. . . These poems are the gateway to a kingdom of rhythmic feeling, linguistic order, and imaginative explorations." Hennessy is the author of a previous collection, Bridge and Tunnel, and his poems have appeared in numerous publications. A former Amy Clampitt Fellow, he teaches at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and serves as poetry editor for The Common.

Bruce Holsinger
February 26th, Wednesday, 8:00 pm
Amherst Books (8 Main Street)
Bruce Holdinger, a medievalist, is the author of six scholarly books, including the award-winning Music, Body, and Desire in Medieval Culture.His newly published debut novel, A Burnable Book, draws on this expertise as well: it’s a dark literary thriller set in Chaucer’s London, about which Library Journal writes, “Medieval England never tasted so rich nor smelled so foul as in this descriptive and intricately layered mystery.” Holsinger teaches in the Department of English at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

Five-College Poetryfest
March 12th, 7:30 p.m.
Pruyne Lecture Hall (Fayerweather 115)

 Yiyun Li
March 25th, Tuesday, 8:00 p.m.
Pruyne Lecture Hall (Fayerweather 115)
Junot Diaz writes, “Li is extraordinary. . . a storyteller of the first order,” and NPR says, simply, “Yiyun Li is a marvel.” Li, winner of the PEN/Hemingway, MacArthur “Genius,” and many other awards, was named, by The New Yorker, one of twenty writers under forty to watch, and her work has been translated into over 20 languages. She is the author of four books, including the newly published Kinder Solitude. She teaches writing at the University of California, Davis, and lives in Oakland, California, with her husband and their two sons.

J.D. McClatchy
April 2nd, Wednesday, 8:00 p.m.
Amherst Books (8 Main Street)
J. D. McClatchy is the author of eight collections of poetry, including his most recent, Plundered Hearts: New and Selected Poems. As the Los Angeles Times puts it: “It’s hard to imagine another poet capable of being wry and tender, unpredictable and measured, original and traditional––within the body of a single poem.” He has also written three books of essays as well as libretti for many contemporary composers, and his operas have played in such houses as the Metropolitan Opera and La Scala. He teaches at Yale, where he also serves as editor of The Yale Review. 

Joan Silber
April 9th, Wednesday, 8:00 p.m.
Amherst Books (8 Main Street)
As the Boston Globe writes: “No other writer can make a few small decisions ripple across the globe, and across time, with more subtlety and power.” Joan Silber is the author of seven books of fiction, includingFools, which waslonglisted for the National Book Award, and Ideas of Heaven, a finalist for the National Book Award. Her short stories have been anthologized in, among other collections, The O. Henry Prize Stories, including this year’s, and the Pushcart Prize volumes. She lives in New York City and teaches at Sarah Lawrence College.