Peter
Cole returns to us with a brand-new book of poetry, Things on Which I’ve
Stumbled. The poems in this, his third volume, move from an archeology of
mysterious poetic fragments unearthed in an ancient Egyptian synagogue to poignant
political commentary on the blighted hills surrounding modern Jerusalem. His previous
two collections of poetry, both highly praised, are Rift and Hymns &
Qualms. Cole is the recipient of a 2007 MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. He
has worked intensively on Hebrew literature, with special emphasis on medieval
Hebrew poetry. Cole’s translation of Selected Poems of Shmuel HaNagid received
the Modern Language Association’s Scaglione Prize for Translation, and he was
granted a TLS translation award for Selected Poems of Solomon Ibn Gabirol. His
latest anthology, The Dream of the Poem, builds on what poet and translator
Richard Howard described as “the finest labor of poetic translation that I have
seen in many years” and “an entire revelation: a body of lyric and didactic verse
so intense, so intelligent, and so vivid that it appears to identify a whole dimension
of historical consciousness previously unavailable to us.”
Roger
Sedarat’s first book of poems, Dear Regime: Letters to the Islamic Republic,
confronts the violent excesses of Tehran’s leadership, past and present, and its
direct impact on his own family. The collection, which also celebrates the humor,
warmth and richness of Iran’s culture, won the 2007 Ohio University Hollis Summers
Poetry Prize and was a finalist for the Bakeless First Book Contest. Sedarat’s
poems and translations have appeared in such journals as New England Review,
Atlanta Review, and Green Mountain Review, and on the web site Iranian.com.
An excerpt from his doctoral dissertation entitled, “Farming New England: Cultivation
of Meaning in Robert Frost’s Poetry” was published in The Robert Frost Review.
He is currently an Assistant Professor in the MFA program at Queens College teaching
poetry and translation, and he has taught writing and literature at John Jay College
of Criminal Justice, LaGuardia Community College, Tufts University, The Fletcher
School of Law and Diplomacy, and Borough of Manhattan Community College. He also
has a forthcoming chapbook, From Tehran to Texas (Cervená Barva Press). www.sedarat.com
All readings include a question & answer period and a reception with books by the author(s) for sale.
Suggested
Donation: $5 ($3 for HVWC members and those under age 18)
Programs and events at The Hudson Valley Writers’ Center are made possible, in part, by grants from the Bydale Foundation, the David G. Taft Foundation, and the Orchard Foundation; with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts; and by the Basic Program Support Grant of the Westchester Arts Council with funds from Westchester County Government.