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Pulitzer Prize-winning poet to speak at reading series

As part of the UA Poetry Center's "Poetry: Now and Next" reading series, Pulitzer prize-winning poet Louise GlŸck and emerging writer Dana Levin will be reading from their most recent bodies of work tonight.

GlŸck's work, unlike many writers, is not composed of single, stand-alone poems. It creates arcs of narrative, series of poems that are unified under a network of themes, typically mythological ones.

GlŸck's interpretations of her personal life through Greek mythology allow her to offer a distanced analysis of her own experiences.

In her book "Meadowlands," Homer's "Odyssey" provides a backdrop for her failing marriage. In her new work "Vita Nova," the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is grafted to the experience of divorce.

GlŸck chose Levin to speak with her after the up-and-coming writer won the American Poetry Review/Honickman First Book Prize for her book "In the Surgical Theater." The award is only two years old but has already earned prestige.

The first contact between the two poets occurred when GlŸck telephoned Levin, praising her work. Afterwards, GlŸck invited Levin to present her poetry at the reading.

Levin was "surprised" because she had considered their writing style to be so different - GlŸck's poetry is plain spoken and minimalist, Levin said, while hers tends toward a more rococo, baroque style.

But Levin added they have some similarities, as well.

"Both of us are in love with the interrogative, declarative and imperative that demands the reader to do something," Levin said. "We both attempt to engage the reader in a similar way."

Both also are considered by some to be confessional poets, but that term fails to encapsulate their intentions.

GlŸck's poetry is more concerned with self-examination. While Levin's is often autobiographical, she also attempts to create "a three-dimensional theatrical space with an obsessive attention paid to the physicality of the place."

Levin's "In the Surgical Theater" also addresses "the darknesses that exist in the human psyche and the world," she said.

The book addresses the theme of "why do we suffer and how do we reconcile ourselves to it or overcome it," Levin said.

Levin's new book, a work-in-progress titled "Wedding Day," is "not so interested in pain" as the first one, but addresses what Levin calls the "difficulty of joy" and the "reconciliation of opposites."

Award-winning poets have drawn large crowds in the past and GlŸck feels that Levin is also deserving of such an audience.

Levin said she enjoys "that immediate contact with an audience" that a reading provides.

The reading will be held in Modern Languages Auditorium tonight at 8. An informal reception will be held afterward. For more information, contact 321-7760.