An Evening of Poetry – Chase Twichell & Lynn Emanuel

Start: Apr 30 2010 8:00 pm

Publishers Weekly called Chase Twichell “a major voice in contemporary poetry,” and this long overdue retrospective supports the claim. Selected from six award-winning books, Horses Where the Answers Should Have Been (Copper Canyon Press, $19) collects the best of Twichell’s meditative and startling poems. A longtime student of Zen Buddhism, Twichell probes how the self changes over time and how the perception of self affects the history and meaning of our lives. Her poems exhibit a deep and urgent love of the natural world amidst ecological decimation, while also delving into childhood memories and the surprise and nourishment that come from radical shifts in perception. Twichell is the author of six books of poetry and the best-selling writer’s manual Practice of Poetry. She is the founding editor of Ausable Press and lives in rural New York with her husband, the novelist Russell Banks. Tonight, Twichell is joined by fellow poet and friend, Lynn Emanuel, for a joint reading of their latest work. Emanuel is the author of three previous poetry collections: Hotel Fiesta; The Dig; and Then, Suddenly—. Her work has been included in the Pushcart Prize anthology, Best American Poetry, and The Oxford Book of American Poetry. Emanuel is the recipient of numerous awards including the Eric Matthieu King Award from The Academy of American Poets, two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships and a National Poetry Series Award. She is professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh. Her newest book is Noose and Hook (University of Pittsburgh Press, $14.95).