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DOUGLAS KEARNEY, NATIONAL POETRY SERIES WINNER FOR “THE BLACK AUTOMATON” (2009) AND TOMÁS URAYOÁN NOEL, LATINO POET AND UALBANY PROFESSOR

[Unfortunately this event is cancelled due to weather]

NYS Writers Institute, February 1, 2011
4:15 p.m. Seminar | Standish Room, Science Library, Uptown Campus
8:00 p.m. Reading | Standish Room, Science Library, Uptown Campus

CALENDAR LISTING
Cutting-edge contemporary poets Douglas Kearney, 2008 winner of the National Poetry Series, and Tomás Urayoán Noel, UAlbany Professor, will read from new work on Tuesday, February 1, 2011 at 8:00 p.m. in the Standish Room, Science Library, on the University at Albany’s uptown campus. Earlier that same day at 4:15 p.m. the authors will present an informal seminar in the same location. Sponsored by the New York State Writers Institute and Fence Books, the events are free and open to the public.

PROFILE
Cutting-edge contemporary poets Douglas Kearney and Tomás Urayoán Noel will share the stage under the sponsorship of the New York State Writers Institute and Fence Books.

Douglas Kearney, African American performance poet, is a 2008 National Poetry Series Winner and recipient of the $50,000 Whiting Writers Award for his collection, “The Black Automaton” (2009), published by Writers Institute partner, Fence Books. “The Black Automaton” was also a finalist for the PEN Center USA Literary Award in Poetry.

2010 National Book Award-winning poet Terrence Hayes said, “Douglas Kearney’s innovative new collection makes me tremble like a ‘mouth and mind full of fish hooks.’ It makes me think of the despair at the heart of ecstasy; of restlessness as a kind of anodyne. These poems literally vibrate with Kearney’s precocious intellect and passion. They hum, they bang, they bite. This is a jaw-dropping, electrifying book. What else can I say? I have never encountered poetry like this before.”

Kearney’s previous collection was “Fear, Some” (2006), an exploration of personal, national, racial and aesthetic anxieties. A new chapbook is forthcoming from Corollary Press, “Quantum Spit” (2011). Kearney is also the author of four avant-garde operas, “Voodoo Queen,” which was showcased by the New York City Opera in 2009, “Sucktion” (2008), “Mordake” (2008) and “Jungaeyé” (2007), which was excerpted in the journal, “Performance Research.” He teaches courses in African American poetry, opera and myth at the California Institute of the Arts.

Tomas Urayoán Noel, Puerto Rican poet, authority on Latino, Nuyorican and slam poetics, and Assistant Professor in the UAlbany English Department, is the author of a new poetry volume, “Hi-Density Politics” (2011). Edwin Torres, one of the leading lights of New York City’s celebrated Nuyorican Poets Café, said in advance praise, “Urayoán Noel celebrates the ‘composite of elsewheres’ that make us whole…. Let’s move, these pages say, let’s breathe the city through our body. With episodic density, Noel whirls us through an extravagant journey….”

Noel’s other books include “Boringkén” (2008), the bilingual “Kool Logic/La lógica kool” (2005), and “Las flores del mall” (2000). His critical work and poetry have appeared in “Contemporary Literature,” “BOMB,” “Fence,” and “New York Quarterly.”

Noel is currently completing a book on Nuyorican poetry, and serves as contributing editor of the bilingual literary journal, “Mandorla: New Writing from the Americas.” He also serves as faculty supervisor for the UAlbany online journal “Barzakh,” which was recently featured in a lengthy entry in “Harriet,” the blog of the Poetry Foundation.

Additional Links: http://bookcritics.org/blog/archive/small_press_highlights_2010_edition/#

For additional information, contact the Writers Institute at 518-442-5620 or online at https://www.albany.edu/writers-inst.