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. (27 minutes)
Rich in its landscapes and its search for personal discovery, John MatthiasŐ 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. (28 minutes)
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 Poems. (45 minutes)
Hosted by Robert Hass and University Librarian Thomas C. Leonard, the kickoff features distinguished new members of the UC Berkeley English Department faculty introducing and reading a favorite Poems. (28 minutes)
A prominent figure in the wide-open poetry movement of the 50s, Lawrence Ferlinghetti gave voice to a generation that changed the face of poetry forever. Challenging the elite's definition of art and the artist's role, Ferlinghetti founded City Lights Bookstore, providing a meeting place for writers, artists, and intellectuals for over a half century. Ferlinghetti's A Coney Island of the Mind continues to be the most popular poetry book in the United States. His most recent work, Americus Book I was published by New Directions in 2004. Tune in for this reading before a live audience at UC Berkeley. (28 minutes)
World-acclaimed young poet Li Young Lee fuses memory, family, culture, and history in his work. Meditating on the vulnerability of humanity, Lee produces passionate and profound lyrical poetry. (28 minutes)
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 ChenŐs work Ňstartles with soulful complexity.Ó (28 minutes)
Dynamic poet Luis Rodriguez speaks of Urban Life in an accessible voice. With charismatic energy, Rodriguez engages the audience by telling his poignant life stories. (27 minutes)
Lyn Hejinian is the author or co-author of 14 books of poetry, including most recently "My Life in the Nineties" and "The Fatalist," as well as the award-winning "My Life." Poetry Flash has described My Life as a work that has "real, almost hypnotic power, obvious intelligence, and [is] astonishingly beautiful." (36 minutes)
Maxine Hong Kingston burst on the literary scene in 1976 with her book, "The Woman Warrior". A UC Berkeley graduate and professor, she has delighted audiences with books such as "China Men" and "Tripmaster Monkey: His Fake Book". In recent years she has started to write more poetry, including "To Be the Poet" from Harvard University Press. (55 minutes)
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. Her selected Poems, "I Love Artists," is forthcoming from UC Press (April, 2006). Tune is as she reads a selection of her Poems before a live audience at UC Berkeley. (28 minutes)
Poet Michael Harper makes a rare West Coast appearance for this installment from the Lunch Poems series. Harper has published over ten books of poetry, including Songlines in Michaeltree: New and Collected Poems and his book Dear John, Dear Coltrane was nominated for the National Book Award. (58 minutes)
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. (28 minutes)
Natasha Trethewey is author of Native Guard, for which she won the 2007 Pulitzer Prize; BellocqŐs Ophelia, named a 2003 Notable Book by the American Library Association; and Domestic Work, selected by Rita Dove for the inaugural Cave Canem Poetry Prize. She received the 2008 Mississippi Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts for Poetry. Currently, she is Professor of English and Phillis Wheatley Distinguished Chair in Poetry at Emory University. (28 minutes)
At nearly 90 years old, Richard Moore is the last of the legendary San Francisco Renaissance poets. Arriving in 1934, he was among the many migrs to California during the Great Depression. His debut collection Writing the Silences marks his reemergence into today's literary world.
Former Poet Laureate of the United States, Hass is a UC Berkeley professor who has made important contributions in poetry, criticism, and translation. His books of poetry are Sun Under Wood, Human Wishes, Praise, and Field Guide, the latter winner of the Yale Younger Poets Award. His critical essays are assembled in Twentieth Century Pleasures, and the poets he has translated include Czeslaw Milosz, Tomas Transtrmer, and masters of Japanese haiku. (46 minutes)
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 donŐt 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." HassŐs 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. (51 minutes)
Robin Blaser emerged from the Berkeley Renaissance of the 1940s and Ô50s along with Jack Spicer and Robert Duncan, and later established himself as one of CanadaŐs 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. (49 minutes)
The student reading includes winners of the following prizes: Academy of American Poets, Cook, Rosenberg, and Yang, as well as students nominated by BerkeleyŐs creative writing faculty, Lunch Poems volunteers, and representatives from student publications. (42 minutes)
Winners of the Academy of American Poets, Cook, Rosenberg, and Yang prizes, as well as students nominated by BerkeleyŐs creative writing faculty, Lunch Poems volunteers, and representatives from student publications read their work. ( minutes)