Events

On the first night, Codrescu will discuss the politics and culture(s) of East and West, the collapse of communism (which he covered for the U.S. media) and its aftermath, and the historical and literary changes that are reshaping Eastern Europe and informing his own relations to spaces of origin or adoption. On the second night, he will be reading from his new book, The Poetry Lesson (Princeton University Press, 2010).

Jennifer Grotz’s second book of poems, The Needle, is forthcoming in Spring 2011. Her first book of poems, Cusp, was chosen by Yusef Komunyakaa for the Bakeless Prize and also received the Natalie Ornish Best First Book Award from the Texas Institute of Letters. Her poems, essays and translations from both the French and Polish appear widely in journals such as New England Review, Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, and American Poetry Review, and in anthologies such as Best American Poetry and Legitimate Dangers. She teaches poetry and translation at the University of Rochester and also serves as the assistant director of the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.

Originally from Kingston, Jamaica, Shara McCallum is the author of three collections of poetry, This Strange Land(Alice James Books, April 2011), Song of Thieves (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2003), and The Water Between Us (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1999).