Director of Media Relations
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AMHERST, Mass.—Piotr Sommer will read from his poetry and translations on Thursday, April 7 at 8:00 pm, at Amherst Books (8 Main Street). Sponsored by the Amherst College Creative Writing Center, the event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.
John Ashbery describes Piotr Sommer as “the great poet of ‘everyday loneliness, contrary to your self, perhaps.' Like Frank O'Hara, whom he has translated into Polish, he is on the lookout for what he calls ‘improper names'—the very ones that allow us to construe the unkempt and taciturn world that surrounds us.” A poet and translator of English, Irish, and American poetry, Sommer is the author of eight books of poetry, including one in English, Things to Translate (1991), and two books of essays. Of his recent collection, Continued, Madeline Levine writes, “Deceptively simple, his poems contain a tension between small moments—harmony with the world and a wry recognition of inevitable loss. Readers will find in Piotr Sommer a poet to treasure.” Sommer is currently a fellow at the Humanities Center at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
The Amherst College Creative Writing Center puts on a yearly reading series featuring both emerging and established authors. More information is available at the Creative Writing Center Website www.amherst.edu/~cwc.
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