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PRIZE WINNING POET FRANZ WRIGHT TO GIVE POETRY READING AT OBERLIN COLLEGE
MARCH 13, 2001--Franz Wright, prize-winning poet and translator, will give a free reading of his poetry Monday, March 19 at 4:45 P.M. in Room 106 of the King Building on the Oberlin College campus (corner of West College and North Professor streets).
Wright, already recognized as one of the leading poets of his generation, published more than a dozen books, including a volume of selected poems, Ill Lit: Selected & New Poems, and an expanded edition of translations entitled The Unknown Rilke.
His new collection, The Beforelife, has just been published from Knopf. "In these short meditations of anguish and hope, Wright achieves the clarity of seeing hard won wisdom as well," says Kirkus Reviews. "Intriguing and always accessible, with no ‘irrelevant/lies,’ this book will expand the audience for poetry by showing readers that, in spite of stunning obstacles, it is always possible to live," says The Library Journal.
Wright’s style has been called spare and dark, haunted by subjects like abuse and alcohol addiction. It is also accessible and surprisingly full of hope. Pulitzer Prize winner Donald Justice has called Wright a "terrific poet--never has any poet, anywhere, been so dark-minded and at the same time so almost playful, so childlike about it all," Justice said. "A unique and major talent."
His major honors include a Whiting Fellowship, two fellowships for the National Endowment for the Arts and the PEN/Voelcker Award for Poetry in 1996.
The reading is co-sponsored by the Oberlin College Creative Writing Program and the Alumni Association.
Elizabeth Oehlkers Wright, poet, translator, and Wright’s wife, will give a translation presentation "From the Spirit to the Letter: Translating Zafer Senocak, " Monday, March 19 at 2:30 P.M. in Wilder Student Union, 135 Lorain Street.
The Creative Writing Program and the German Department of Oberlin College sponsor Oehlkers Wright’s presentation.
Media Contact: Debbie Pillivant
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