Poetry, Authors, Books (audio)

American Poet Billy Collins reads “Divorce” at the 2013 Writer’s Symposium by the Sea, sponsored by Point Loma Nazarene University. Series: "Writer's Symposium By The Sea" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 24996]

Aaron Shurin is the author of eleven books of poetry and prose, most recently Citizen, a collection of prose poems and King of Shadows, a collection of personal essays. His writing has appeared in over thirty national and international anthologies, and has been translated into seven languages. Shurin’s honors include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council, the San Francisco Arts Commission, and the Gerbode Foundation. He lives in San Francisco. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 24348]

Kathleen Fraser’s newest collection, m o v a b l e TYYPE, foregrounds texts from four recently produced Artist Books. Her collected essays, Translating the Unspeakable: Poetry and the Innovative Necessity, is in its second printing. She edited and co-founded the journal HOW(ever) and in 2001, launched its on-line version, How2. While director of The Poetry Center, Fraser founded The American Poetry Archives at San Francisco State University where she taught in the Graduate Writing Program for 20 years. Her honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship and two NEA fellowships. She has published 16 volumes of poetry and seven collaborative Artist Books, recently collected by the Bienecke Library at Yale. Her work has been translated widely in Italian and French. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 24346]

Hosted by Robert Hass and University Librarian Thomas C. Leonard, this event features distinguished faculty and staff from a wide range of disciplines introducing and reading a favorite poem. This year’s participants: Justin Brasheres (Environmental Science), Associate Chancellor and Chief of Staff Beata Fitzpatrick, Donna V. Jones (English), Vice Provost Catherine Koshland (Teaching, Learning, Academic Planning and Facilities), Director Lawrence Rinder (Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive), Colleen Rovetti (University Relations), Debarati Sanyal (French), Associate Director Sanchita Saxena (Center for South Asia Studies), Director Alix Schwartz (Academic Planning for the College of Letters & Science), David Sklansky (Law), and Andrew Stewart (Classics) Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 24345]

One of the year’s most lively events, the student reading includes winners of the following prizes: Academy of American Poets, Cook, Rosenberg, and Yang, as well as students nominated by Berkeley’s creative writing faculty, Lunch Poems volunteers, and representatives from student publications. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 22620]

Richard Berengarten (aka Richard Burns) was born in London in 1943. The author of more than twenty books, Berengarten has been something of a maverick in contemporary British poetry. Two of his books are regarded as contemporary classics: “The Manager” and “The Blue Butterfly,” an elegy for victims of a Nazi massacre in former Yugoslavia. A book of essays about his work, “The Salt Companion to Richard Berergarten,” has recently appeared. He is a Bye-Fellow at Downing College, Cambridge. This is his first reading in the Bay Area in almost twenty years. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 22619]

This reading celebrates the publication of “ascension,” the first book of poems by giovanni singleton, coordinator of Lunch Poems. She has recently been selected by the Poetry Society of America for its biennial New American Poets series. singleton is a recipient of a New Langton Bay Area Award Show for Literature and has been a fellow at Squaw Valley Community of Writers, Cave Canem: A Workshop for African-American Poets, and the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference. She is founding editor of “nocturnes (re)view,” a critically acclaimed journal dedicated to artists and writers of the African Diaspora and other contested spaces. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 22617]

Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon was awarded the Cave Canem Poetry Prize for Black Swan, her debut collection of poems that mixes vernacular language with classical mythology, modern struggles with Biblical trials, and gives voice to women past and present. With her second, ]Open Interval[, nominated for the 2009 National Book Award, Van Clief-Stefanon “marries a wildness of vision with a lens-maker’s precision.” She is co-author, with Elizabeth Alexander, of the chapbook Poems in Conversation and a Conversation. She is currently working on a third collection of poetry, The Coal Tar Colors. She lives in Ithaca, New York and teaches at Cornell University. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 22616]

Clayton Eshleman, American poet, translator, and editor, reads from his recently released translation “Solar Throat Slashed,” by Aimé Césaire, co-translated with A. James Arnold. Césaire, a strong anticolonialist, was born in the Caribbean and wrote his poems and plays in French. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 22615]

Born in San Francisco, Robert Haas is a California poet but his poetry, translations, and essays reveal an intimacy that transcends the borders of states and nations. With his direct clarity and promotion of literacy in “places where poets don’t go,” he served two years as U. S. Poet Laureate (1995-97). His numerous books include “Sun Under Wood,” “Time and Materials,” and “The Apple Trees at Olema: New and Selected Poems.” Hass’s numerous accolades include the MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship, two National Book Critics' Circle Awards, and the Pulitzer Prize. Hass has translated many of the works of Nobel Prize-winning Polish poet, Czeslaw Milosz. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 22614]

Hosted by Robert Hass and University Librarian Thomas C. Leonard, distinguished faculty and staff from a wide range of disciplines introduce and read a favorite poem. This year’s participants: Ronelle Alexander (Slavic Languages and Literatures), Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost George Breslauer, Myrtis Cochran (Reference Services), George Jaqua (Physical Plant), Trinh T. Minh-ha (Rhetoric and Gender & Women’s Studies), Michael L. Palmer (Summer Sessions), Kent Puckett (English), Samuel J. Redman (Regional Oral History). Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 22613]

UC Berkeley students read original poetry at the close of Lunch Poems for 2011. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 19353]

Geoffrey G. O’Brien is the author of “Green and Gray” and “The Guns and Flags Project,” and co-author of “2A.” His third collection, “Metropole,” is forthcoming from The University of California Press in 2011. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 19352]

Poet, visual artist and teacher Truong Tran, is the author of several publications including, “The Book of Perceptions,” “Placing The Accents,” “dust and conscience,” “within the margin” and “Four Letter Words.” Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 19351]

Hosted by Robert Hass and University Librarian Thomas C. Leonard, this event features distinguished faculty and staff from a wide range of disciplines introducing and reading a favorite poem. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 19347]

Charlotte, North Carolina native Indigo Moor has authored two books of poetry. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 19349]

Camille Dungy is the author of two poetry collections and teaches creative writing at San Francisco State University. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 19350]

The student reading includes winners of the following prizes: Academy of American Poets, Cook, Rosenberg, and Yang, as well as students nominated by Berkeley’s creative writing faculty, Lunch Poems volunteers, and representatives from student publications. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 17127]

Join contributors to “Black Nature,” the First Anthology of Nature Writing by African-American Poets including the writers Harryette Mullen, Ed Roberson, Evie Shockley, Natasha Tretheway, Camille Dungy and Al Young. They read from their work and participate in a discussion on the literary and environmental issues raised by the new anthology. Series: "Writers" [Humanities] [Show ID: 18356]

Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Lisa Chen earned a BA from UC Berkeley and an MFA from the University of Iowa. Her debut collection of poetry, mouth, received a 2009 award from the Association for Asian American Studies. Sesshu Foster says that Chen’s work “startles with soulful complexity.” Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 17126]