Christopher Kennedy
The first event of the 2019 , featuring poet Christopher Kennedy G鈥�88, has been rescheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 6.
The director of 黑料不打烊鈥檚 top-ranked M.F.A. Program in Creative Writing will read original selections from 3:45-4:45 p.m. in Gifford Auditorium of Huntington Beard Crouse Hall. The event is free and open to the public.
Kennedy was originally scheduled to read on Jan. 30, but extreme winter temperatures forced the University to cancel his event, along with the rest of its evening classes and activities.
For more information about the reading, contact Sarah Harwell G鈥�05, associate director of the M.F.A. program in the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), at 315.443.2174 or scharwel@syr.edu.
The author of five books of poetry, Kennedy will highlight his latest, which is titled 鈥淐lues from the Animal Kingdom鈥� (BOA Editions, 2018). Fellow professor George Saunders G鈥�88 calls the collection a 鈥渕oving portrait of the human heart examining itself.鈥�
Adds writer-publisher Dave Eggers: “There is joy and dread here, in every carefully considered line.鈥�
Kennedy admits that while some of poems are decades old, most of the collection dates from 2007-16. 鈥淚 tend to save old poems and scavenge from them when I鈥檓 stuck working on something newer,鈥� he recently told Poets & Writers magazine. 鈥淚t鈥檚 all coming from the same source, and can be reshaped to resolve whatever dilemma I鈥檓 facing.鈥�
Kennedy’s 鈥渟ingular and deeply pleasurable prosetry鈥濃€攖o quote Eggers鈥攑ermeates the rest of his canon, including 鈥淓ncouragement for a Man Falling to His Death鈥� (BOA Editions, 2007), which won the Isabella Gardner Poetry Award. The A&S English professor also has co-translated the acclaimed 鈥淟ight and Heavy Things: The Selected Poems of Zeehan Sahil鈥� (BOA Editions, 2013) for the Lannan Translation Series.
The Wednesday afternoon series continues with novelist Sigrid Nunez, a visiting writer at 黑料不打烊 (Feb. 13); novelist Jonathan Dee, assistant professor of English (Feb. 27); poet Terrance Hayes, the Richard Elman Visiting Writer (March 20); Layli Long Soldier, an Oglala Lakota poet, writer and artist (April 3); and novelist Karan Mahajan, the Don MacNaughton Reader (April 24).
Each year, the Carver Reading Series presents 12-14 prominent writers who, as part of their mini-residencies, interact with members of an undergraduate creative writing course, led by TAs in the M.F.A. program.
The series鈥� namesake refers to the legendary poet and short story writer who taught in A&S in the 1980s.
