LECTURES

Robert Pinsky, U.S. Poet Laureate (1997-2000), founded the Favorite Poem Project, in which thousands of Americans — of varying backgrounds, all ages, and from every state — shared their favorite poems. Robert Pinsky’s landmark, best-selling translation of The Inferno of Dante received the Los Angeles Times Book Award and the Howard Morton Landon Prize for translation. He is also co-translator of The Separate Notebooks, poems by Nobel Prize winner Czeslaw Milosz. Pinsky’s prose book, The Life of David, is a lively retelling and examination of the David stories, narrating a wealth of legend as well as scripture. Pinsky also wrote the libretto for Tod Machover’s opera Death and the Powers: A Robot Pageant, which premiered in Monaco in fall 2010. His forthcoming book, Selected Poems, will be published by Farrar Strauss & Giroux in spring of 2011.

Charles Simic, U.S. Poet Laureate (2007-2008), was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1954 . His first full-length collection of poems, What the Grass Says, was published in 1967. Since then he has published more than sixty books in the U.S. and abroad, twenty titles of his own poetry among them, including That Little Something (Harcourt, 2008), My Noiseless Entourage (2005); Selected Poems: 1963-2003 (2004), for which he received the 2005 International Griffin Poetry Prize; The Voice at 3:00 AM: Selected Late and New Poems (2003); Night Picnic (2001); The Book of Gods and Devils (2000); and Jackstraws (1999), which was named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times.

Worcester Celebration of Poets
Poetry & Music All Day – FREE & Open to the Public

12noon to 2:00pm – Kid-Friendly Poetry
Our youngest Worcester poets are invited to read their favorite poems – including their own poems!
Or come by to enjoy readings of children’s poetry by local Worcester poets.

2:00pm to 6:00pm – Poetry Open Mic
Read your own work or take the mic on behalf of your favorite poet!

Doors re-open at 6:30 (cash bar)
7:30pm to 9:30pm – Readings by US Poets Laureate Charles Simic and Robert Pinsky