The Princeton Poetry Festival returns to Princeton University on Thursday and Friday, October 5 and 6, bringing world poets together to share work with student and community audiences.
Coordinated by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, Princeton University professor, and founding chair of the Lewis Center Paul Muldoon, pictured at right, this year’s festival features 12 poets from three continents. Representing the United States are poet and translator Eleanor Goodman; 2012 Brave New Voices International Slam Champion Amal Kassir, three-time U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky (presenting with Grammy-winning pianist Laurence Hobgood), and poet and translator Jacquelyn Pope.
International poets include Chinese poet Zang Di, Dutch poet Hester Knibbe, Irish poet Michael Longley, Macedonian poet Nikola Madzirov, Serbian poet Ana Ristovic, Cuban poet Victor Rodriguez-Nunez, Icelandic poet Sjon, and Canadian poet Karen Solie.
The Festival opens on October 5 at noon with a reading by all participating poets and an introduction by Muldoon. It is followed by the 1:30 p.m. panel discussion “Verse and Adversity,” and a 3 p.m. reading featuring writers Knibbe, Pope, Madzirov, Rodriquez-Nunez, and Solie. The first day concludes with “PoemJazz,” the poetic and musical interaction between Pinsky and Hobgood.
The October 6 segment begins at 2 p.m. with a reading by Pope, Ristovic, and Sjon. It will be followed at 3 p.m. with the second “Verse and Adversity” panel with Knibbe, Madzirov, Muldoon, Pinsky, Pope, Rodriquez-Nunez, and Solie, and concludes with a reading featuring Bass, Di (with translator Goodman), Kassir, and Longley. U.S. Poet Laureate and Princeton University Professor Tracy K. Smith provides the introduction.
The 2017 Princeton Poetry Festival takes place in the Berlind Theater of McCarter Theater Center and is part of the festival celebrating the opening of the Peter B. Lewis Center for the Arts complex. Admission is free. arts.princeton.edu/events/2017-princeton-poetry-festival/2017-10-05
