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Tomorrow's readings to mark end of poetry series

The UA Poetry Center's "Poetry Now & Next: A Millennial Celebration" reading series ends tomorrow with a final reading by prominent poet Marliyn Hacker and emerging writer Aleida Rodriguez - who Hacker selected to read at the series.

Hacker is the author of nine books of poetry. Her first work, entitled "Presentation Piece," was awarded the National Book Award in 1975.

This award is one of many earned by the poet over her career.

"She has won a ton of awards," said Tucson poet Linda Smukler, who knew Hacker when they were both writers living in New York. Smukler will be introducing Hacker at tomorrow's reading.

Hacker also received a Lambda Literary Award, the Poet's Prize and the Lenore Marshall Award - given by The Nation, a national literary publication, and the Academy of American Poets.

Smukler describes Hacker as an "informal formalist."

"She is a formalist poet in that she uses traditional forms - sonnets, sestinas, couplets," said Smukler.

Smukler added that Hacker has an informal style of language that contrasts with traditional forms.

"She is a poet of everyday language, of everyday moments, places, conversations," said Smukler.

Hacker's work, Smukler said, addresses themes of breast cancer, AIDS, the Holocaust and her lesbian lifestyle.

Her verse novel "Love Death and the Changing of Seasons" - composed of more than 200 sonnets - deals with her life as a lesbian. Smukler said it is "based on an obsessive love affair and its demise."

Her most recent work "Squares and Courtyards: Poems" uses her two residencies of New York and Paris as backdrops for an intimate poetic exploration of death and lasting effects for its witnesses.

Rodriguez will also be presenting her work at the reading.

Born in Cuba in 1953, Rodriguez moved to an Illinois foster home through Operation Peter Pan, a 1960s relocation program run by the Catholic Church and the U.S. State Department.

After later moving to Los Angeles, Rodriguez co-founded rara avis magazine.

There she wrote her first book of poems "Garden of Exile," which received the 1998 Kathryn A. Morton Poetry Prize. Rodriguez has also won other prizes and grants, including a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts.

In addition to the reading, there will be a colloquium with an open-ended theme to be interpreted by the poets and audience. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask both Hacker and Rodriguez questions about their poetry or the theme.

The reading will be held at the Modern Languages Auditorium at 8 p.m. The colloquium is Thursday at 11 a.m. at the Martin Luther King Jr. Building, 1322 E. First Street, in room 100. Both events are open and free to the public.