Tues, Apr 6, 8 pm, $27 ($10 for those ages 35 and under)
Reading: IAN McEWAN (from his new book Solar!)
McEwan, the Booker Prize-winning novelist whose books include Atonement, On Chesil Beach and Amsterdam (among others) makes his only New York appearance to read from his new book, Solar (Knopf Doubldeay), which hits bookstores on March 30. At the center of Solar is Michael Beard, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist (working on global warming, among other issues) with a penchant for infidelity, whose life is turned upside down upon discovering that his wife is having an affair. Michael gets an invitation to travel to New Mexico, where he can reinvigorate his career, avoid his marital problems and quite possibly save the world from environmental disaster.
Thurs, Apr 8, 8:15 pm, $19 ($10 for those ages 35 and under)
Poetry Reading: LOUISE GLÜCK & DUNYA MIKHAIL
Glück, a former U.S. poet laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner, reads from her new collection, A Village Life (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2009). “Not many poets can be electrifying while keeping the stakes this hypothermically low,” said Dana Goodyear of The Los Angeles Times. “Glück is a master, finely calibrating the shocks and their intervals.” Iraqi poet Dunya Mikhail lived in Baghdad, but fled her homeland after being placed on Saddam Hussein’s enemies list. Now a Michigan resident, Mikhail has published four poetry collections; her most recent work is Diary of a Wave Outside of the Sea (New Directions, 2009). “These are political poems without political rhetoric, Arabic poems without Arabic poetical flourishes, an exile’s letter with neither nostalgia nor self-pity, an excavation of the ruins of her homeland,” wrote the judges of the Griffin Prize, for which Mikhail was short-listed in 2006.
Sun, Apr 18, 11 am, $34
Books & Bagels: BRAD GOOCH ON FLANNERY O’CONNOR
Some things you may already know about Flannery O’Connor: she was one America’s greatest writers of short fiction; she was reclusive; she may or may not have been the lover of Betty Hester; and she was fascinated by birds (of all feathers). Biographer Brad Gooch visits the 92nd Street Y to tell you some things about O’Connor that you may not know. He is the author of Flannery: A Life of Flannery O’Connor (Little, Brown and Company, 2009).
Mon, Apr 26, 8:15 pm, $19 ($10 for those ages 35 and under)
Poetry Reading: TERRANCE HAYES & NATASHA TRETHEWEY
Natasha Trethewey’s Native Guard won the Pulitzer Prize in 2007. Rita Dove is a big fan. Said Dove: “Here is a young poet in full possession of her craft, ready to testify, to which I say: ‘Can we get an Amen?’” Terrance Hayes, whose poems have appeared in the New Yorker and Poetry magazine (among other publications) reads from his new collection, Lighthead, which comes out on March 30 (Penguin Books). “[Hayes’] poems explode with the euphoria of summer lightning for our instruction and joy,” wrote John Ashbery.
Wed, Apr 28, 8 pm (Tickets available in March at www.smartix.com)
PEN WORLD VOICES FESTIVAL: Opening Night
The 92nd Street Y Poetry Center is proud to host the opening-night reading of the sixth-annual PEN World Voices Festival, a week-long showcase of writers from around the world.
Featured writers will be announced on March 19.
Fri, Apr 30, 7 pm (Tickets available in March at www.smartix.com)
PEN WORLD VOICES FESTIVAL: Readings from Around The Globe
Featured writers will be announced on March 19.
Sun, May 2, 11 am, $34
Books & Bagels: CONTESTED WILL – JAMES SHAPIRO ON SHAKESPEARE
Did Shakespeare really author some of greatest known works in literary history? Or was it Christopher Marlowe? How about the Earl of Oxford? Or, is it blasphemy to even consider that Shakespeare was not the man who penned Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and many other beloved classics. James Shapiro gets to the bottom of it all, as he discusses his new book, Contested Will: The Shakespeare Authorship Controversy (Simon & Schuster, April 2010).
Mon, May 3, 8 pm, $27 ($10 for those ages 35 and under)
Reading: JOHN IRVING
John Irving, author of such beloved books as The World According to Garp, The Cider House Rules and A Prayer for Owen Meany (among others) reads from his new novel, Last Night in Twisted River (Random House, 2009). “Nothing in life is easy for Irving’s characters,” wrote the late Robertson Davies. “In his novels the still, sad music of humanity rises to the orgasmic uproar of a rock band.”
Mon, May 10, 8:15 pm, $19 ($10 for those ages 35 and under)
Poetry Reading: “Discovery”/Boston Review Poetry Contest Winners
This 58-year old contest, now called “Discovery”/Boston Review, has unearthed many future gems (poets who hadn’t yet published a book), including John Ashbery in1952, Lucille Clifton (1969), Nick Flynn, Mary Jo Salter and Marilyn Hacker, among many others. This year’s winners, who read their work at this event, are: Chelsea Jennings, of Seattle, WA; Brandon Kreitler, of Brooklyn, NY; Tanya Olson, of Durham, NC; and Camille Rankine, of New York, NY. The contest was judged by Nick Flynn, Susan Howe and Claudia Rankine. Timothy Donnelly, poetry editor at Boston Review and Tracy K. Smith were co-screeners. Each of the four winners receives a cash prize of $500 and publication in Boston Review.
Mon, May 24, 8 pm, $27 ($10 for those ages 35 and under)
THE POETS’ THEATER – Elizabeth Bishop & Robert Lowell
Sixty-three years after they were supposed to meet at the at the 92nd Street Y, star-crossed poets and long-time pen pals Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell get another chance. They’ll be channeled by the Tony-nominated actors Kate Burton and Michael Cumptsy, who will read from Bishop and Lowell’s letters and poetry, drawing on the 2008 book, Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell (Faber and Faber).
TICKETS/INFO | www.92Y.org | 1395 Lexington Ave. | 212.415.5500
PRESS CONTACT: Andrew Sherman | 212.415.5693 | asherman@92y.org
About the 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center
For decades, the 92nd Street Y has served as a public literary salon and a place to which writers have come to learn their craft. The legendary 92nd Street Y Unterberg Poetry Center opened in 1939 with a reading by William Carlos Williams. Over the years, he was followed by virtually every great 20th century writer—Dylan Thomas, Elizabeth Bishop, W.H. Auden, Jorge Luis Borges and Langston Hughes, to name but a few. Today, the center presents readings by poets, novelists and playwrights, and talks with critics, biographers and scholars. Through its Poets’ Theatre, the center produces masterfully written dramas performed by accomplished actors. The center’s extensive writing program gives working adults access to teachers who are practicing authors, a rarity outside M.F.A. programs. Community outreach programs offer high-school students access to world-famous authors, and new immigrants literacy-training through literature. Young writers find support at the center through a series that pairs established writers with emerging writers; and The Discovery/Boston Review poetry contest, for poets who have not yet published a book.