Archive for October 2006
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October 19, 2006
Pulitzer Prize Winning Poet Yusef Komunyakaa at Writers in the Library
Renowned poet will read on Monday, November 6 at 7 p.m.
Yusef Komunyakaa will read at Writers in the Library on Monday, November 6 at 7 p.m. in the Lindsay Young Auditorium of Hodges Library. Senior Distinguished Poet at New York University, Komunyakaa has published numerous collections of poetry and won the 1994 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his collection Neon Vernacular.
"He is one of the very best poets writing today, in my opinion," Marilyn Kallet, Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Tennessee, said. "His poetry is infused with jazz-blues, and every syllable is well-crafted. He works on three books at a time," Kallet said.
Komunyakaa's poetry collections also include Copacetic (1984), I Apologize for the Eyes in My Head (1986), Dien Cai Dau (1988), and Magic City (1992), and he was a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist for Thieves of Paradise (1998). He also edited the anthology Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry (2003), and recorded the spoken word cd The Best Cigarette (1997).
In 1999 Komunyakaa was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, and his many other commendations include the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award from Claremont Graduate University, the Thomas Forcade Award, the William Faulkner Prize from the University of Rennes, the Dark Room Poetry Prize, Poetry magazine's Levinson Prize, and the Hanes Poetry Prize.
Born in Bogalusa, Louisiana in 1947, he served in the army during the Vietnam War. He received the Bronze Star for his service in Vietnam, where he was a correspondent and managing editor of the Southern Cross. He has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, and the Louisiana Arts Council.
Due to the popularity of this event, the reading will also be webcast into Hodges Library Rooms 127, 128, and 129 for overflow crowds.
This special event is sponsored by the Creative Writing Program in association with the John C. Hodges Better English Fund, and Writers in the Library.
The Writers in the Library series is sponsored by the University of Tennessee Libraries and the Creative Writing Program of the UT English Department. For further information, please contact Jo Anne Deeken, Head of Technical Services, UT Libraries, at 974-6905 or deeken@aztec.lib.utk.edu, or R.B. Morris, Jack E. Reese Writer in Residence, UT Libraries, at 974-3004 or rbmorris@utk.edu.
Posted by Laura Purcell at 02:50 PM in Writers in the Library
Special Collections Library Presents Andrew Jackson Exhibit
Exhibit to Celebrate New Jacksonian-Era Collection
During the past year, Tennessee businessman and collector William C. Cook donated his impressive collection of rare books and imprints to the University Libraries and the Center for Jacksonian America. To celebrate this significant donation, the Special Collections Library is presenting an exhibit of materials from the Cook Collection. The exhibit opens on Monday, October 23 at 3:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public and refreshments will be served.
Andrew Jackson was the seventh president of the United States, serving from 1829-1837. Born in South Carolina in 1767, he joined the Continental Army during the American Revolution and was captured and imprisoned by the British during the war. By 1787 he had moved to Tennessee and became a frontier lawyer. He rose to national prominence with his service during the War of 1812. He was elected as Tennessee's first congressman, and also served the state as a senator and on the Tennessee Supreme Court.
Some of the more controversial aspects of Jackson's presidency included his opposition to a national bank, tariff legislation and most famously, American Indian Removal, which caused more than 45,000 American Indians to be relocated from the Eastern United States to the West. After his presidency, he retired to his estate, The Hermitage, in Nashville. He died in 1845.
The William C. Cook Jacksonian America Collection is a significant addition to the Special Collections Library. The collection covers variety of topics on Jacksonian America, and contains rarities such as first editions and autographed texts. The collection contains children's literature from the period, biographies about Andrew Jackson, and many pamphlets that reflect both the pro- and anti-Jackson political rhetoric of the day.
The exhibit will be on display through Spring 2007. Also in celebration of this significant donation, the Center for Jacksonian America is hosting a lecture by noted Andrew Jackson scholar Harry L. Watson. The presentation, "Freedom and Majority Rule: Andrew Jackson's Complex Legacy," was held on October 24 in the Kefauver Room on the second floor of Hoskins Library, 1401 Cumberland Avenue.
For more information about the exhibit and events, please contact Aaron Purcell, Coordinator for Research Services and University Archivist, at 974-3674 or at apurcel2 at utk.edu.
Posted by Laura Purcell at 01:13 PM in Exhibits
October 09, 2006
Writers in the Library Features Knoxville Writers Guild Authors
Authors will read from the Guild's new anthology, Low Explosions.
On Monday, October 23, Writers in the Library welcomes Knoxville Writers Guild authors reading from their latest anthology, Low Explosions: Writings on the Body.
Low Explosions is the seventh anthology collection from the Knoxville Writers Guild. From size and shape to skin color, pregnancy, aging, ailments, disabilities, extra-abilities, disorders and genetic composition, this book peeks inside some of the most commonly fought yet controversial battles raging inside the human body.
Editor Casie Fedukovich and other Guild members culled through over 500 submissions to compile the work. "All of the pieces contend with some major explosion, whether actual--heart attacks and orgasms--or metaphorical--the author's realization that he or she is 'that age' or 'that weight' or 'that color'," Fedukovich writes in the introduction. "Explosions, on any scale, are disruptive, but many of the pieces [in the book] move beyond the initial eruption of body, mind, or spirit to bring the reader to a quiet and satisfied end," Fedukovich said.
"No matter the differences of genetic chance, each of us shares in the one universal human experience, living in the body," Jane Hicks, author of Blood and Bone Remember, said. "Low Explosions takes a frank look at living in the body, making the journey from young to old, coming together, becoming divided, the state of being within the body, our primal landscape," Hicks continued.
Laura Still, Bradford Tice, Jane Sasser, Terri Beth Miller, Emily Dziuban and Charlotte Pence will read their submissions to the anthology. The reading begins at 7:00 p.m. and will be held in the Lindsay Young Auditorium of Hodges Library. The event is free and open to the public.
The Writers in the Library series is sponsored by the University of Tennessee Libraries and the Creative Writing Program of the UT English Department. For further information, please contact Jo Anne Deeken, Head of Technical Services, UT Libraries, at 974-6905 or deeken@aztec.lib.utk.edu, or R.B. Morris, Jack E. Reese Writer in Residence, UT Libraries, at 974-3004 or rbmorris@utk.edu.
Posted by Laura Purcell at 02:47 PM in Writers in the Library
October 06, 2006
Tennessee Reads Features Coldhearted River Author Kim Trevathan
Trevathan to read October 26 at 6:30 p.m. at Carpe Librum Booksellers
Join the UT Library Friends on Thursday, October 26 at 6:30 p.m. to hear author Kim Trevathan discuss his latest book Coldhearted River: A Canoe Odyssey down the Cumberland.
Coldhearted River is Kim Trevathan's account of canoeing the Cumberland River, 696 miles from its headwaters near Harlan, Kentucky to Paducah. The once wild river, named because it was as "crooked as the Duke of Cumberland," is now tamed by a series of TVA dams and is comprised of many large, recreational lakes.
The book documents Trevathan's journey along the Cumberland through storms, mosquitoes and curious characters; his tiny canoe surviving the wakes of large, powerful motorboats. Photographer Randy Russell, whose images are included in the book, accompanied Trevathan.
Trevathan's last book, Paddling the Tennessee River: A Voyage on Easy Water, depicted the author's canoe journey along the Tennessee with this dog, Jasper.
Trevathan's talk will also include video footage of the journey, including shots of cows invading the campsite and unusual alters in Kentucky.
This Tennessee Reads event will be held at Carpe Librum Booksellers, 5113A Kingston Pike (next to Gourmet's Market in Bearden), on Thursday, October 26. The reading begins at 6:30 p.m. and refreshments will be served. The event is sponsored by the University of Tennessee Press, the UT Library Friends, Carpe Librum Booksellers and WUOT.
Posted by Laura Purcell at 01:28 PM in Library Friends
October 02, 2006
Writers in the Library Presents Vivian Shipley
Vivian Shipley to read on Wednesday, October 18 7 p.m. at Hodges Library
Likely to slam Martha Stewart or commune with Sylvia Plath, poet Vivian Shipley is renowned for her intense imagery, vivid and gripping in its reality. Born in Chicago and raised in Kentucky, Shipley has taught at Southern Connecticut State University since 1969. She currently holds the position of distinguished professor there and also edits the Connecticut Review.
The author of 11 books, Shipley's most recent work is Hardboot: Poems New & Old, which won the 2006 Patterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement. Her book When There Is No Shore won the Connecticut Book Prize for Poetry from the Library of Congress Center for the Book.
Shipley will read as part of the Writers in the Library series on Wednesday, October 18 at 7 p.m. in the Lindsay Young Auditorium of Hodges Library. She will also hold an informal discussion for students on October 18 from 2-3 p.m. in room 1210 of McClung Tower.
This event is sponsored by the Creative Writing Program, in association with the John C. Hodges Better English Fund, and Writers in the Library. The reading is also an Appalachian Literary Treasure as part of UT's Ready for the World program.
The Writers in the Library series is sponsored by the University of Tennessee Libraries and the Creative Writing Program of the UT English Department. For further information, please contact Jo Anne Deeken, Head of Technical Services, UT Libraries, at 974-6905 or deeken@aztec.lib.utk.edu, or R.B. Morris, Jack E. Reese Writer in Residence, UT Libraries, at 974-3004 or rbmorris@utk.edu.
Martha Stewart's Ten Commandments for Snow
by Vivian Shipley
I. Make the paths neat with a slight curve. Leave at
least an inch of snow. Aesthetics are important.
II. Pack perpendicular walls of snow. Cross country
ski through them to the gym. Snowshoe to work.
III. Walk your dog. Always hang a little whisk broom
on your wrist. When you see yellow snow, remove it.
IV. If you are old, stay in your home if you have one.
Tie grosgrain ribbons on sheets. Wash the gold china.
V. It takes two hours to make a snow cave. If you don't
hibernate balled in like a snake, an igloo takes three.
VI. You can sleep out at five below zero. It will be cozy.
Dream a little. Dye the iced walls with food coloring.
VII. Wrap yourself in layers of pastel tissue from Chanel.
If you are poor, newspaper, cardboard, just anything.
VIII. Hypothermia could set in. First signs are that you feel
weak or sleepy. Keep something nearby, a bottle will do.
IX. The body is a furnace. Funnel or pour anything handy
into your mouth-86 calories per hour or 2,000 a day.
X. You may have problems walking on ice and fall down.
Don't beg. In calligraphy, letter: Please Pick Me Up.
-from Vivian Shipley's award-winning collection When There is no Shore
Posted by Laura Purcell at 12:43 PM in Writers in the Library