An Afternoon with Poet Adrienne Rich

By Leigh DuPuy

One of America's most influential poets, Adrienne Rich, gave a poetry reading and participated in a book signing as part of the English Department's Distinguished Lecture Series on September 24.

To an overflowing audience in the University Club eagerly anticipating Rich's reading, Askold Melnyczuk, director of the Creative Writing Department, spoke of her awe-inspiring career filled with national accolades such as the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the National Book Award, two Guggenheims, the MacArthur Fellowship, and the Bollingen Prize for Poetry. Melnyczuk described faculty and student reactions to the news of her visit as characterized by a deep "respect for the integrity of her work and her life."

Rich, small but powerful in her address from behind the podium, joked with the audience as she rustled through her papers. "There's this examination dream that poets have – you get up to the podium and you don't have your new work, only your first book, no manuscripts at all."

She then read several poems, old favorites and new works, giving the audiences glimpses of some of her personal inspiration for each. She shared how a line in a letter from a friend inspired her poem "Sending Love" and the experience of dismantling her parents-in-law apartment led her to write "Plaza Street and Flatbush."

Her passionate advocacy for human rights and commentary on turbulent political landscapes of here and abroad were highlighted by her pieces "School Among the Ruins," "If Your Name Is on This List," and "Equinox."

In association with the event, Alane Salierno Mason of Norton Publishers announced the launch of an online magazine for international literature: wordswithoutborders.org.

The event was also sponsored by the Creative Writing Program, the William Joiner Center for the Study of War and Social Consequences, the Women's Studies Program, The Watermark, the Provost's Office, and Words without Borders.

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