"I am 3/4ths Canadian, and one 4th New Englander - I had ancestors on both sides in the Revolutionary war." - Elizabeth Bishop
____________________________________________

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Our Paris Correspondent Writes:

Becoming a Poet: Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Elizabeth Bishop -- Talk by poet Kathleen Spivack

As a young student, Kathleen Spivack received a scholarship to study writing in Robert Lowell's famous workshop in Boston. He introduced her to poets Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton and others who were also studying with Lowell. Later, through Robert Lowell, she met the poet Elizabeth Bishop. We are celebrating Bishop's centennial this year.

Kathleen spent quite a lot of time with each of the poets she met through Lowell. Writing was the focus. In this presentation, she will discuss how Lowell taught, and how these poets approached their work. What can we learn from them?

Sunday March 20th at 6p.m. in the upstairs library.
Shakespeare and Company
37 rue de la Bûcherie
75005 Paris, France
Tel/Fax: 0033(0)1 43 25 40 93
http://www.shakespeareandcompany.com

Kathleen Spivack’s newest book, A History of Yearning, won the Sows Ear International Poetry Chapbook Prize, the New England & Los Angeles Book Festivals prizes, and the London Book Festival First Prize for Poetry, 2011. Her work has also received the Allen Ginsberg, Erika Mumford and Paumanok awards.

Earlier books are Moments of Past Happiness, Earthwinds/Grolier; The Beds We Lie In (Scarecrow 1986), nominated for a Pulitzer Prize; The Honeymoon: a Collection of Short Stories (Graywolf 1986); Swimmer in the Spreading Dawn (Applewood 1981); The Jane Poems(Doubleday 1973); Flying Inland (Doubleday 1971). She is currently completing a book Student! With Robert Lowell and his Famous Circle: Sexton, Plath, Bishop etc., which looks at at how these writers approached their work.

Her permanent residence is in Boston. She has taught in France full or half time for the past twenty years as a Fulbright Professor in Creative Writing in France (1993-1994), a Visiting Professor at the University of Paris VII-VIII, the University of Tours, the University of Versailles, and at the Ecole Superieure (Polytechnique). She also teaches in the United States and has been Visiting Writer at American Universities.
www.kathleenspivack.com

No comments:

Post a Comment