UA Poetry Center Announces Spring Event at the Phoenix Art Museum

UA Poetry CenterTUCSON (April 1, 2015) —Continuing on a successful collaboration from the fall 2014 – spring 2015 season that brought artists and poets of national acclaim to Phoenix audiences, the University of Arizona Poetry Center and Phoenix Art Museum will again partner to offer a reading and lecture series this spring, next up to feature visual artist and poet Jen Bervin.

Jen Bervin will give an artist talk on Friday, May 1 at at 7 p.m. at the Phoenix Art Museum about her work Emily Dickinson: The Gorgeous Nothings, a facsimile edition of Emily Dickinson’s “envelope poems,” co-edited with the scholar Marta Werner. Bervin’s works are held in more than thirty national collections including the Walker Art Center and The J. Paul Getty Museum. She has published four books with Granary Books and three others with Ugly Duckling Presse. Emily Dickinson: The Gorgeous Nothings was selected as a Best Book of the Year for 2013 from Times Literary Supplement, Hyperallergic and The New Yorker.

About Phoenix Art Museum

Phoenix Art Museum is located at 1625 N. Central Ave. in Phoenix, AZ.  The Museum has provided access to visual arts and educational programs in Arizona for more than 50 years and is the largest art museum in the Southwestern United States. Top national and international exhibitions are shown alongside the museum’s collection of more than 18,000 objects of American, Asian, European, Latin American, Western American, modern and contemporary art, photography and fashion design. The museum hosts photography exhibitions through its landmark partnership with The University of Arizona’s Center for Creative Photography in Tucson. Visitors can also enjoy the PhxArtKids gallery, the Dorrance Sculpture Garden, the Thorne Miniature Rooms of historic interiors, and a collection of works by renowned Arizona artist Philip C. Curtis. For additional information about Phoenix Art Museum please visit phxart.org or call 602-257-1880.

About The University of Arizona Poetry Center

The University of Arizona Poetry Center is housed in one of three landmark buildings for poetry in the nation. In addition to its world-renowned collection of contemporary poetry, the Poetry Center is known for its readings and lecture series, international symposia, classes and workshops, writers’ residencies, and a wide range of programs for children and youth. The Poetry Center was most recently recognized with a 2014 Governors Arts Award.

For additional information about these events please visit poetry.arizona.edu.

 

Jen Bervin Talk on The Gorgeous Nothings: Emily Dickinson’s Envelope Poems

envelope poemThe University of Arizona Poetry Center and the Phoenix Art Museum present:

Artist’s Talk from Jen Bervin, co-editor of The Gorgeous Nothings: Emily Dickinson’s Envelope Poems, which was recognized as a 2013 best book of the year by The New Yorker and Times Literary Supplement.

This event is FREE and will be followed by a Q & A, with books available for purchase. Learn more at poetry.arizona.edu or phxart.org.

Date: Friday, May 1, 7:00 PM

Location: The Phoenix Art Museum, 1625 N. Central Ave, Phoenix, Arizona

The book is printed in a facsimile edition, and the poems are unique–each is composed on the flap of an envelope.  You can learn more about the book in the NYTimes review and New Yorker pieces below:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/06/books/the-gorgeous-nothings-shows-dickinsons-envelope-poems.html?_r=1

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/01/27/back-of-the-envelope

For even more information you can check out these links to reviews on the book:

NPR: “Readers always seem to want to get to closer to Emily Dickinson, the godmother of American poetry. Paging through her poems feels like burrowing nose-deep in her 19th century backyard – where ‘the grass divides as with a comb,’ as she writes in…”

http://www.npr.org/2013/11/30/247496393/emily-dickinson-envelope-writings-gorgeous-poetry-in-3-d

An essay response in Jacket2: “‘The world will not rest satisfied,’ wrote a reviewer of Emily Dickinson’s poems in 1982, ’till every scrap of writings, letters as well as literature, has been published.’ Here is how The Gorgeous Nothings, a provocation, satisfies…”

http://jacket2.org/reviews/light

LA Times: “In 2012, a daguerreotype surfaced that was thought to be of a midlife Emily Dickinson, causing an Internet frenzy. As far as we (the frenzied) knew, there was only one known…”

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/nov/21/entertainment/la-ca-jc-emily-dickinson-20131124

New Republic: “It turns out that for a not insignificant fee, literary museums and author’s homes will often let guests handle the artifacts, materials, and manuscripts of long-deceased writers. On a chilly, windblown visit to…”

http://newrepublic.com/article/115452/gorgeous-nothings-emily-dickinson-envelope-writings

Events: Fady Joudah at the Phoenix Art Museum

Poetry Center in Phoenix: Fady Joudah

Feb 18, 2015, 7pm

Orientation Room, Phoenix Art Museum

Join the U of A Poetry Center and the ASU Art Museum for a reading from acclaimed poet and translator Fady Joudah.

Celebrated for his definitive translations from the Arabic, Joudah will also read from his most recent collections Alight and Textu.

Cost: This event is on a #FreeAdmissionWednesday evening and is free and open to the public.

Presented in collaboration with the University of Arizona Poetry Center and the UA College of Medicine Phoenix

Phoenix Art Museum