Poetry! Athens, GA

Poet Graham Foust will read from his work tomorrow, 2/1 at 4:30 p.m. in 265 of Park Hall. Foust is the author of two volumes of poetry: As in Every Deafness (Flood Editions, 2003) and Leave the Room to Itself (Ahsahta, 2003). A 2002 graduate of the Poetics Program at the University of Buffalo, he is now an Assistant Professor of English at Drake University. His poetry has appeared in Jacket, Lingo, Slope, and DC Poetry Anthology.

Poet G.C. Waldrep will read from his work. Waldrep is the author of two books: Southern Workers and the Search for Community (Illinois, 2000), winner of the Illinois Prize for History, and Goldbeaters Skin (Center for Literary Publishing, 2003), winner of the Colorado Prize for Poetry. His poems have appeared in Poetry, Ploughshares, Gettysburg Review, Verse, Boston Review, and New American Writing. Waldrep has a Ph.D. in American History from Duke University and will graduate this spring with an MFA in poetry from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. Friday, Jan. 28, 4:30 p.m. in Park Hall 265.

Guest hosts of the University of Georgia Creative Writing Program's Vox Reading Series Jessica Bozek and Johannes Göransson bring Mark Bilbrey, Patrick Hargon and Lisa Hargon Smith to the stage. Take note; this reading is on a Thursday, rather than our usual, Wednesday.

Thursday, January 27th, 7:30pm
Flicker Theater & Bar(on Washington near the corner of Pulaski)
Free and open to the public!

Poet Andrew Zawacki will read from his work at 4:30 p.m. this Friday,
1/21 in Room 265 of Park Hall. He is the author of two volumes of
poetry, most recently Anabranch (Wesleyan University Press, 2004). His
previous book, By Reasons of Breakings (UGA Press, 2002), won the
Contemporary Poetry Series Competition. Along with writing poetry and
criticism, Zawacki is a co-editor of Verse. A Rhodes Scholar,
Zawacki earned an M.Phil in Modern English Literature and Society from
the University of Oxford.

Thursday, January 20: World-renowned poet, writer, commentator, activist, educator and all-around superstar Nikki Giovanni will deliver the annual Holmes/Hunter Lecture (which honors UGA's first African-American students, Charlayne Hunter-Gault and the late Dr. Hamilton Holmes). Giovanni has won the NAACP Image Award three times, and was named "Woman of the Year" by Ebony, Mademoiselle and Ladies Home Journal magazines. She's one of the most entertaining speakers you'll hear. 2:00 PM. The Chapel.

January 20: Nikki Giovanni (CHA Visting Lecturer)
January 21: Andrew Zawacki (CWP)
January 28 (4pm): G. C. Waldrop (CWP)
January 28 (8pm): Beth Ann Fennelly & Chris Forhan (GA Poetry Circuit)
February 1: Graham Foust (CWP)
February 14: Bin Ramke (CWP/Lanier Series)
March 23: Rae Armantrout (Lanier Series)
April 4: Jerome Rothenberg (Lanier Series)
April 5: Alice Notley (Lanier Series)
April 7: Robert Dana (GA Poetry Circuit)
April 14: Simon Armitage (CWP/Lanier Series)
April 20: Oni Buchanan & John Woodward (VOX)

Dates TBA:
Lisa Jarnot (Lanier Seies)
Ben Friedlander (Lanier Series)

On Friday, January 28th , poets Chris Forhan and Beth Ann Fennelly will
read in Athens at Little Kings, 223 West Hancock Street (corner of
Hancock and Hull) beginning at 8:00 pm. Beer and wine will be served,
and books will be available for purchase and signing courtesy of Judy
Long of Byhalia Books. The reading is free of charge and open to the public.

Chris Forhan, a member of the Auburn University English Department
faculty, was awarded the Samuel French Morse Poetry Prize for The
Actual Moon, The Actual Stars (2003). Receiving critical acclaim, the
book is described as “Often lit by a playful sense of humor and voice
that is truly engaging- [Forhan] creates a landscape that is both
intensely physical and filled with the age-old questions.” His first
book, Forgive Us Our Happiness, won the Bakeless Prize and was
published by the University Press of New England in 1999. He has also
published two chapbooks, x and Crumbs of Bread. His poetry has won a Pushcart Prize, and has appeared in Poetry, Ploughshares, New
England Review, Parnassus, The Georgia Review, and other magazines.
He teaches both at Auburn University and in the Warren Wilson M.F.A.
Program.

Beth Ann Fennelly, who comes to Athens via the Georgia Poetry Circuit,
is from Chicago and received her MFA from the University of Arkansas.
She was the 1998-1999 Diane Middlebrook Fellow at the University of
Wisconsin, and has received grants from the Illinois Arts Council and
the National Endowment for the Arts. Her poems have appeared in The
American Scholar, The Kenyon Review, Michigan Quarterly Review,
Shenandoah, The Georgia Review and TriQuarterly; they have been
anthologized in The Pushcart Prize 2001, The Penguin Book of the
Sonnet: 500 Years of a Classic Tradition in English, Poets of the New
Century, and The Best American Poetry 1996. Her first book, Open
House, published by Zoo Press, won The 2001 Kenyon Review Prize. Her
latest book, Tender Hooks, was published by W. W. Norton in March,
2004. Ms. Fennelly is an assistant professor of English at the
University of Mississippi and lives with her husband, the writer Tom
Franklin, and their daughter, Claire, in Oxford, Mississippi. Of Tender
Hooks, Lucinda Williams said "these poems read like little short
stories. Beth Ann Fennelly's perspective on motherhood is the boldest
I've ever witnessed. She explores areas openly that others only think
about in the privacy of their minds. Her poems are brave and beautiful."

This reading is sponsored by The Georgia Review and the Georgia Poetry
Circuit. For more information, contact David Ingle at 542-0397.