Search

ARCHIVES
CONTACT US
WORLD NEWS

Poetry series, proposed site bring new hopes

As the new millennium approaches, technology junkies are scrambling to ensure that the last of their computers are Y2K compliant.

While others worry about informational concerns, the University of Arizona's nationally acclaimed Poetry Center looks towards the 21st century with hopeful eyes, vigilant pens and tight wallets.

The center, located at 1216 N. Cherry Ave., hopes to preserve poetry with its reading series "Poetry Now and Then: A Millennial Celebration" and the proposal of a bigger and better facility.

Where It's At The reading series begins Sept. 8 at 8 p.m. in the Modern Languages auditorium with a reading by Nanci Kincaid, author of Balls. Future appearances include: Sept. 22, Gary Soto and Rigoberto Gonzalez Oct. 6, Maggie Nelson Oct. 20, Undergraduate Student Reading Nov. 3, Graduate Student Reading Nov. 17, Luci Tapahonso Dec. 1, Jane Miller and Eleni Sikelianos

If you would like to donate books or funds to the archive, please contact the Poetry Center at 321-7760.

The center recently initiated a campaign to raise $4 million within two to three years to build a larger facility. The proposed facility - which will accommodate a nationally-renowned archive of 35,000 books - will be located on the southwest corner of North Santa Rita Avenue and East Mabel Street, just north of East Speedway Boulevard.

"The center has outgrown its current facility because its collection has grown so dramatically," said Alison Deming, Poetry Center director and creative writing professor. "The new facility will provide a permanent home for one of the nation's most distinguished and comprehensive literary centers."

Meanwhile, presenting renowned authors and poets such as Robert Creeley, Nanci Kincaid and Leslie Marmon Silko, the center hopes to "stimulate excitement for contemporary poetry by noting the continuities and discontinuities between poets of the 20th century and the poets of the 21st," said Frances Shoberg, events coordinator.

"The series has broad appeal to students because it provides an exceptional opportunity to hear, in person, major authors of our period," Deming said.

Although all readers are either literary authors or poets, the program is not strictly for those whose lives revolve around literature.

"The Poetry Center is careful not to put these series together just for specialists," said Jerry Hogle, English professor and faculty chair. "These readers are people that many non-writers are reading."

In previous years, the reader series has invited authors such as Sherman Alexie, Sandra Cisneros and Robert Frost, each time drawing 300 to 500 literature devotees. This year the center hopes to draw an even larger crowd in a "two-for-one" fashion said Tom Willard, associate head and director of undergraduate students for the English department.

"An established poet like Robert Creeley has name recognition," he said. "People will come to hear him and will then get to know another poet whose work the established poet admires," he said.

With the annual series and an upgraded facility, the center strives to reinforce founder Ruth Stephan's mission "to maintain and cherish the spirit of poetry," by providing "an outstanding research collection and meeting place for students, scholars, teachers, poets, writers and readers of poetry."