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PIERRE JORIS and
JEROME ROTHENBERG

Poems for the Millennium:
A Celebration

NYS Writers Institute
October 22, 1998

8:00 p.m. Reading | Recital Hall, PAC, Uptown Campus

A group poetry reading in celebration of the publication of Poems for the Millennium: From Postwar to Millennium edited by Pierre Joris and Jerome Rothenberg will feature readings by the editors, as well as by area poets featured in the anthology. The list includes Don Byrd, Robert Kelly, Charles Stein, Ed Sanders and Cecilia Vicuña.

The first volume of the two-part anthology, Poems for the Millennium: From Fin-de-Siecle to Negritude appeared in 1995 and received the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award. It offered a broad, international and eclectic selection of poets and movements up until the Second World War. Poet Robert Creeley called it "brilliant revision in the most basic of senses of all we'd thought was 'poetry of the twentieth century.'"

The new second volume presents an even bolder revision of the poetic canon that Publishers Weekly calls, "an astonishing amount of exciting poetry [that] freely crosses national and aesthetic boundaries." The anthology includes poets as diverse as the Chinese 'Misty poets,' the Arabic 'Tammuzi poets,' the practitioners of 'Cyberpoetics,' and many others. Publishers Weekly continues, ". . .as an introduction to the many avant-gardes of the second half of the century. . .the value of this international gate crasher cannot be underestimated." Booklist says, "To say this anthology cries to be argued with is to praise, not to blame, editors Rothenberg and Joris. . .such argument is part of the great delight this important work affords."

Jerome Rothenberg is the author of over 50 books of poetry and is one of the world's leading anthologists. He is Professor of Visual Arts and Literature at the University of California, San Diego. Pierre Joris has published over 20 books of poetry, as well as numerous anthologies and translations. He is Professor of English at the University of Albany.

Additional Links:
Jerome Rothenberg Bio
Pierre Joris Bio

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