Knox Reads!
The book giveaway launches the 2010 Knox Reads! program in advance of the Kenyon Review Literary Festival on November 5-6 in Gambier. Merwin, the poet laureate of the United States, will visit Kenyon for a free lecture and reading on November 6. Merwin is being honored with the 2010 Kenyon Review Award for Literary Achievement on November 5 in New York City.
David Lynn '76, professor of English and editor of the Kenyon Review, described The Shadow of Sirius as the work of a master. Merwin "has pared his art to essentials: the interplay of memory and identity, the hard grit of place and how it shapes ourselves," he said. "Sirius won Merwin a second Pulitzer Prize and, like the late Beethoven quartets or the equally late poetry of Yeats, it represents a brilliant calibrating of vision in ripeness."
Knox Reads! is a month-long series of events, including book discussions, lectures and readings, designed to introduce the work of the honored writers to the community and inspire interest in lifelong reading and learning. Here is a list of upcoming events:
- October 2, 9:00 a.m.-noon. Knox Reads! kickoff with distribution of free books at the Mount Vernon Farmers Market at the Mount Vernon Square.
- October 14, 4:10 p.m. Lecture by Thomas Hawks, visiting assistant professor of English, on "The Shadow of Sirius and W.S. Merwin's Place in Contemporary Poetics" at the Finn House Cheever Room.
- October 19, 7:00 p.m. John Chidester, director of the Public Library of Mount Vernon and Knox County, leads a book discussion at the main library.
- October 26, 7:00 p.m. Royal Rhodes, Donald L. Rogan Professor of Religious Studies, discusses "Translating our Middle Path: W.S. Merwin, Zen, and Nature at Kenyon" at the main library in Mount Vernon.
- October 28, 4:10 p.m. Presentation on "Merwin in Translations," led by Kenyon faculty and students at the Finn House Cheever Room.
- November 2, 4:10 p.m. Student-led book discussion at the Olin Library Ringwalt Room.
- November 3, noon. Chidester leads a brown-bag chat on "Appreciating Poetry - A Retrospective of American Poets Laureate" at the main library in Mount Vernon.
- November 5, all day. Self-guided Merwin poetry hikes around Gambier. Maps for the tour will be available in Peirce Hall.
- November 5, 5:30 p.m. Empty Bowls Dinner for charity followed by a poetry reading by Forrest Gander at 7:30 p.m., Peirce Hall.
- November 6, 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Discussion panels, readings, seminars and workshops, Peirce Hall. Self-guided Merwin poetry hikes around Gambier with maps available at Peirce Hall.
- November 6, 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m. Council of Literary Magazines and Presses Literary Magazine Fair and Kenyon Review Book Sale, Peirce Hall.
- November 6, 8:00 p.m. The Denham Sutcliffe Memorial Lecture: An Evening with W.S. Merwin, followed by a reception and book-signing, at Rosse Hall.