Poetry (Audio)

A remarkably strong generation of women poets has emerged in Korea in the last decade. Five of them visited Berkeley, reading, and talking to Korean-American poets and the women poets of the Bay Area. This is a very rare chance to hear some of the most important and exciting voices in Asia: Jeongrye Choi, Young Mi Choi, Hwang Insuk, Chung-hee Moon and Ra Heeduk. They will read their work in Englis...

Born in San Francisco in 1930, world-renowned poet, essayist, and environmentalist Gary Snyder has published sixteen books of poetry and prose, and received the Pulitzer Prize in 1974 for Turtle Island. Snyder has traveled widely and lived for extended periods of time in Japan, where he studied and practiced Rinzai Zen. He is currently a professor at University of California, Davis. Series: "Lunch...

Songwriters Richie Furay (Buffalo Springfield, Poco) and Greg Laswell (Three Flights From Alto Nido) share tips on composing lyrics and then play music for host Karl Martin as part of the 2009 Writer’s Symposium by the Sea sponsored by the Point Loma Nazarene University. Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 15699]

One of the great postwar Central European poets, Slovenian Tomaz Salamun has published over thirty books. He has taught at universities around the world. He reads to an audience at UC Berkeley. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 15431]

Tracy K. Smith received degrees in English and creative writing from Harvard and Columbia, and was a Wallace Stegner Fellow in poetry at Stanford. Her first book, The Body's Question, was awarded the 2002 Cave Canem Poetry Prize, and her most recent collection, Duende: Poems, received the James Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets. She teaches creative writing at Princeton. Series: "L...

Born in Odessa, Ilya Kaminsky immigrated to the United States in 1993 when his family was granted asylum by the American government. Kaminsky teaches comparative literature, poetry and literary translation at San Diego State University. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 15428]

Robin Blaser emerged from the Berkeley Renaissance of the 1940s and ‘50s along with Jack Spicer and Robert Duncan, and later established himself as one of Canada’s foremost experimental poets. In addition to numerous works of poetry, criticism, and translation, Blaser has also penned an English and Latin opera libretto entitled The Last Supper in collaboration with Sir Harrison Birtwistle. Series:...

Poet, editor, and scholar Juliana Spahr discusses her writing and research. Series: "The Center for Cultural Studies at UC Santa Cruz presents" [Humanities] [Show ID: 15001]

Jessica Fisher’s Frail-Craft was the winner of the prestigious 2006 Yale Series of Younger Poets competition. She is a doctoral candidate in English at U.C. Berkeley and is coeditor, with Robert Hass, of The Addison Street Anthology, which chronicles Berkeley’s rich poetic history. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 13565]

World-renowned poet Diane di Prima, one of the preeminent writers to emerge from the Beat generation, wrote in Manhattan for many years before relocating to San Francisco, where she has been for nearly four decades. Her 43 books of poetry and prose have been translated into over twenty languages. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 13564]

Arthur Sze is an internationally known writer and celebrated translator. A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Sze teaches at the Institute of American Indian Arts, and is the first poet laureate of Santa Fe, where he resides. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 13563]

Born in Mexico City, Monica de la Torre came to the United States in 1993 on a Fulbright scholarship to study at Columbia University. Her poetry explores with great depth both the boundaries and the permeability of imposed identity, combining a playful use of form and dry humor with a hint of hopefulness. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 13562]

Revolutionary poet, playwright, and activist Amiri Baraka is recognized as the founder of the Black Arts Movement, a literary period that began in Harlem in the 1960s and forever changed the look, sound, and feel of American poetry. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 13561]

Rich in its landscapes and its search for personal discovery, John Matthias’ poetry encompasses vast territories of history and culture. He has published more than twenty-five books, twelve of which are poetry, and is the editor of Notre Dame Review. This is his first visit to the west coast in over twenty-five years. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 13560]

Considered by literary critics to be one of the finest living English language poets, Walcott also is a playwright, author, visual artist, and professor. His presentation includes poetry and commentary [Humanities] [Show ID: 12192]

A prominent figure in California’s poetry scene for decades, Joanne Kyger writes poetry influenced by her practice of Zen Buddhism and her ties to the poets of Black Mountain, the San Francisco Renaissance, and the Beat Generation. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 11962]

Born in Seoul, Korea, Myung Mi Kim travels to the root of language, connecting speech and culture in a rich web of immaculate phrases. Kim strips words to the bone, using fragments and white space to enhance her themes of dislocation and first language loss. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 11961]

Iraqi poet Dunya Mikhail immigrated to the United States in 1996 after increasing harassment over her poetry, which confronts war and exile with subversive depictions of suffering. In 2001 she was awarded the UN Human Rights Award for Freedom of Writing. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 11960]

Author, poet, pastor and professor Eugene Peterson charms his audience as he recalls his effort to translate the Bible into The Message, an interpretation geared for modern readers. The book has such wide appeal that U2’s Bono began quoting from it at concerts. But when told of this, Peterson’s response was “Who is Bono?” Peterson is joined host Dean Nelson in Part 2 of the 2007 Writers Symposium...

Part antiphonal rant, part rhythmic whisper, Nathaniel Mackey reads from his new book of poetry and talks about his writing to an audience at UC Santa Cruz where he is a professor of literature. Mackey recently received the 2006 National Book Award for poetry. [Humanities] [Show ID: 12221]

Born in Brooklyn to an Iraqi father and a Syrian mother, Jack Marshall explores the cultures and cities that shaped his artistic awakening. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 11959]

The recent recipient of the prestigious Academy of American Poets Wallace Stevens award for "outstanding and proven mastery in the art of poetry," Michael Palmer is regarded as "one of America's most important poets" by Harvard Review. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 11957]

Will Alexander has created a contemporary alchemy of surrealist vision in his own electric incandescent language. Coined the Césaire of America, his poetry is full of imagistic and intelligent unraveling. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 11958]

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and recent US poet laureate Ted Kooser gives a public reading and answer questions on his art during a visit to UC Davis. [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 12031]

Born in Beijing, China, and raised in Massachusetts, Mei-mei Berssenbrugge molds language with seemingly effortless beauty and grace that invites the reader on a journey between worlds. She has published three books of poetry. Tune is as she reads a selection of her poems before a live audience at UC Berkeley. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 11158]