Poetry (Audio)

Richard Berengarten (aka Richard Burns) was born in London in 1943. The author of more than twenty books, Berengarten has been something of a maverick in contemporary British poetry. Two of his books are regarded as contemporary classics: “The Manager” and “The Blue Butterfly,” an elegy for victims of a Nazi massacre in former Yugoslavia. A book of essays about his work, “The Salt Companion to Richard Berergarten,” has recently appeared. He is a Bye-Fellow at Downing College, Cambridge. This is his first reading in the Bay Area in almost twenty years. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 22619]

This reading celebrates the publication of “ascension,” the first book of poems by giovanni singleton, coordinator of Lunch Poems. She has recently been selected by the Poetry Society of America for its biennial New American Poets series. singleton is a recipient of a New Langton Bay Area Award Show for Literature and has been a fellow at Squaw Valley Community of Writers, Cave Canem: A Workshop for African-American Poets, and the Napa Valley Writers’ Conference. She is founding editor of “nocturnes (re)view,” a critically acclaimed journal dedicated to artists and writers of the African Diaspora and other contested spaces. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 22617]

Lyrae Van Clief-Stefanon was awarded the Cave Canem Poetry Prize for Black Swan, her debut collection of poems that mixes vernacular language with classical mythology, modern struggles with Biblical trials, and gives voice to women past and present. With her second, ]Open Interval[, nominated for the 2009 National Book Award, Van Clief-Stefanon “marries a wildness of vision with a lens-maker’s precision.” She is co-author, with Elizabeth Alexander, of the chapbook Poems in Conversation and a Conversation. She is currently working on a third collection of poetry, The Coal Tar Colors. She lives in Ithaca, New York and teaches at Cornell University. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 22616]

Clayton Eshleman, American poet, translator, and editor, reads from his recently released translation “Solar Throat Slashed,” by Aimé Césaire, co-translated with A. James Arnold. Césaire, a strong anticolonialist, was born in the Caribbean and wrote his poems and plays in French. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 22615]

Born in San Francisco, Robert Haas is a California poet but his poetry, translations, and essays reveal an intimacy that transcends the borders of states and nations. With his direct clarity and promotion of literacy in “places where poets don’t go,” he served two years as U. S. Poet Laureate (1995-97). His numerous books include “Sun Under Wood,” “Time and Materials,” and “The Apple Trees at Olema: New and Selected Poems.” Hass’s numerous accolades include the MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship, two National Book Critics' Circle Awards, and the Pulitzer Prize. Hass has translated many of the works of Nobel Prize-winning Polish poet, Czeslaw Milosz. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 22614]

Hosted by Robert Hass and University Librarian Thomas C. Leonard, distinguished faculty and staff from a wide range of disciplines introduce and read a favorite poem. This year’s participants: Ronelle Alexander (Slavic Languages and Literatures), Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost George Breslauer, Myrtis Cochran (Reference Services), George Jaqua (Physical Plant), Trinh T. Minh-ha (Rhetoric and Gender & Women’s Studies), Michael L. Palmer (Summer Sessions), Kent Puckett (English), Samuel J. Redman (Regional Oral History). Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 22613]

UC Berkeley's popular noontime poetry series is under the direction of UC Berkeley professor and former Poet Laureate Robert Hass and features renowned poets reading and discussing their work. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 53437]

UC Berkeley students read original poetry at the close of Lunch Poems for 2011. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 19353]

Geoffrey G. O’Brien is the author of “Green and Gray” and “The Guns and Flags Project,” and co-author of “2A.” His third collection, “Metropole,” is forthcoming from The University of California Press in 2011. Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Arts and Music] [Show ID: 19352]

Poet, visual artist and teacher Truong Tran, is the author of several publications including, “The Book of Perceptions,” “Placing The Accents,” “dust and conscience,” “within the margin” and “Four Letter Words.” Series: "Lunch Poems Reading Series" [Humanities] [Show ID: 19351]