Monday Muse: Poetry at Hill Center

The excellent local series of in-depth conversations with poets, "The Life of a Poet", begins a new season just days from now. The series, co-sponsored by the Library of Congress and The Washington Post, is moderated by Ron Charles, editor for the newspaper's Book World section, and is held at Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital in Washington, D.C. In addition to discussing career and major works, the poets read from their work.

Here's the current lineup:

On Thursday, September 29, 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m., the award-winning Terrance Hayes, author, most recently, of How to Be Drawn (Penguin Poets, 2015), finalist for both the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, starts off the 2016-2017 series with Charles.

Hayes is co-director of the Center for African American Poetry and Poetics and an English professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

The author of four poetry collections, Brenda Shaughnessy joins Charles on Friday, February 7, 2017, 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. Shaughnessy, who teaches at Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey, published So Much Synth (Copper Canyon Press) this past May. 

Shortlisted for the 2013 Griffin Poetry Prize (for Our Andromeda), she is the recipient of a James Laughlin Award and was a finalist for a National Book Critics Circle Award (both for Human Dark with Sugar).

On Tuesday, April 4, 2017, 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m., Charles talks with Dana Levin. The author of the forthcoming Banana Palace (Copper Canyon Press, October 11, 2016), Sky Burial (Copper Canyon Press, 2011), and two other collections, Levin has received a number of prestigious awards, including the Honickman First Book Prize, the John C. Zacharis First Book Award, the PEN/Osterweil Award, and the Witter Bynner Prize (all for In the Surgical Theatre). 

Levin teaches at Maryville University, St. Louis, where she also is the inaugural distinguished writer-in-residence. Levin is a participant at the 2016 Fall for the Book, continuing through September 30 at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia.

~

Those who don't live in our area or miss one of Charles's conversations will find each recorded and made available on YouTube.

All "Life of a Poet" events are free and open to the public but registration is required.

Hill Center on FaceBook, Twitter, and YouTube