December 11, 2003

University Of California, San Diego
Co-Sponsors Poetry.alt.mla@mcasd

By Patricia Quill

The University of California, San Diego’s Center for the Humanities, Department of Literature, and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego Downtown (MCASD Downtown), will host an assembly of contemporary poets reading brief sections of their work.

UCSD faculty Rae Armantrout, literature (pictured) and Roberto Tejada, visual arts organized Poetry.alt.MLA@MCASD

Coinciding with this year’s Modern Language Association Convention, Poetry.alt.MLA@MCASD will take place at 6 p.m., Dec. 28, 2003, at the MCASD Downtown, 1001 Kettner Blvd. at Broadway. Admission is free and the public is welcome.

Organized by UCSD faculty Rae Armantrout (Literature) and Roberto Tejada (Visual Arts), the evening will feature UCSD faculty members David Antin, Rae Armantrout, Michael Davidson, Eileen Myles, Jerome Rothenberg, Pasquale Verdicchio, and Wai-lim Yip, as well as, readers from around the country, and beyond.

David Antin is a respected poet, critic and performance artist, who has been writing poetry since 1955 and art criticism since 1964. His published over a dozen books and numerous essays on artists and writers. Antin, now Professor Emeritus, joined UCSD’s Visual Art Department faculty in 1968.

Rae Armantrout is the author of ten books, including Veil: New and Selected Poems (2002), which has been named a finalist for the 2002 Pen Center USA Poetry Award. An instructor of poetry, personal narrative, and experimental forms at UCSD since 1981, Armantrout has been director/co-director of UCSD’s New Writing Series since1989.

Michael Davidson, author of eight books of poetry and two of criticism, Davidson is also the editor of The New Collected Poems of George Oppen (2002). Davidson began his UCSD career as a resident historian in 1974 and is currently a professor of American Literature.

Eileen Myles, a widely respected poet, fiction writer, and journalist, is perhaps best known for her novels Chelsea Girls and Cool for You. Formerly the artistic director of the St. Mark’s Poetry Project in New York, she joined the UCSD faculty in 2002 and has been teaching fiction and poetry for more than 20 years.

Jerome Rothenberg is an internationally known poet with over sixty books of poetry and several anthologies of traditional and contemporary poetry. Winner of numerous awards and fellowships, UCSD Professor Emeritus Jerome Rothenberg was elected to the World Academy of Poetry (UNESCO) in 2001.

Pasquale Verdicchio is considered a leading translator of the work of numerous Italian poets. His poetry, reviews, criticism, photography and scholarly articles have appeared in journals and reviews in Canada, the US, and Europe. Verdicchio was head of the UCSD Writing Program from 1996 until 1998.

Wai-lim Yip, active as a bicultural poet, translator, critic, and theorist for over thirty years, is the author of more than forty books. Celebrated as one of the Ten Major Modern Chinese Poets by the Taiwan Ministry of Education, he was recently honored at the 7th Triennial Congress of Chinese Literature Association in conjunction with the publication of The Complete Works of Wai-lim Yip by Anhui Educational Press. A UCSD Department of Literature professor since 1967, Wai-lim Yip has played a central role in the Comparative Literature Section and the Program of Chinese Studies.

The full program of Poetry.alt.MLA@MCASD will also include Susan Briante, Joshua Clover, Richard Deming, Stacy Doris, Dan Featherston, Gloria Gervitz, Carla Harryman, Nancy Kuhl, Hank Lazer, Steve McCaffery, Mark McMorris, Laura Moriarty, Jena Osman, Ted Pearson, Peter Ramos, Joe Ross, Juliana Spahr, Lorenzo Thomas, Barrett Watten, and Elizabeth Willis.

A book signing and reception will follow the readings. For information about Poetry.alt.MLA@MCASD, contact Rae Armantrout at rarmantrout@ucsd.edu.

For information about the UCSD Department of Literature, go to http://literature.ucsd.edu/.

Media Contact: Patricia Quill, (858)822-0661 or pquill@ucsd.edu