Shelf Awareness
James Tate, National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winning poet, as well as a professor at the University of Massachusetts since 1971, died yesterday, the Amherst Republican reported. He was 71. Tate's many books included Worshipful Company of Fletchers, Selected Poems and The Ghost Soldiers. A new collection, Dome of the Hidden Pavilion, will be published by Ecco next month. Poet Matthew Zapruder called Tate's death "a huge loss for American poetry."
Mark Wootton, a longtime friend and co-owner of Amherst Books, said Tate "was ill for quite a number of years," but read as usual last month during the University of Massachusetts Juniper Summer Writing Institute. "He gave good reading. People enjoyed it. He was full of life."
"It's a shock, it's a such a loss for the Valley," said Joan Grenier, owner of the Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley. "He has been such a presence through his poetry and through the MFA program. He mentored so many younger poets."
Poet Jorie Graham told the Boston Globe: "Jim Tate was undoubtedly a genius, and certainly the surrealist branch of American poetry would not exist in its current form without him. He mixed Beckett-like black humor with his own flat Midwestern brand of the Kafkaesque absurd.... quite a few generations of poets in the United States simply could not have found their voices without his guiding, mischievous, brilliant, darkly-lit spirit."
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Michael Zifcak, longtime head of Collins Booksellers, died on June 30. He was 96. Australian Booksellers Association CEO Joel Becker called him "one of the most significant figures in bookselling in Australia over the second half of the 20th century."
In 1951, after immigrating to Australia from Czechoslovakia, Zifcak began work as an accountant at Collins Booksellers, which then consisted of three stores. Eventually under his auspices, Collins grew to more than 50 stores. He also founded Collins's publishing division, Hill of Content. He was longtime chairman of Collins.
He was also president of the Australian Booksellers Association and president of the International Booksellers Federation and founded the National Book Council. He was awarded an OBE for services to literature and was a cultural ambassador for UNESCO.
Mark Wootton, a longtime friend and co-owner of Amherst Books, said Tate "was ill for quite a number of years," but read as usual last month during the University of Massachusetts Juniper Summer Writing Institute. "He gave good reading. People enjoyed it. He was full of life."
"It's a shock, it's a such a loss for the Valley," said Joan Grenier, owner of the Odyssey Bookshop in South Hadley. "He has been such a presence through his poetry and through the MFA program. He mentored so many younger poets."
Poet Jorie Graham told the Boston Globe: "Jim Tate was undoubtedly a genius, and certainly the surrealist branch of American poetry would not exist in its current form without him. He mixed Beckett-like black humor with his own flat Midwestern brand of the Kafkaesque absurd.... quite a few generations of poets in the United States simply could not have found their voices without his guiding, mischievous, brilliant, darkly-lit spirit."
---
Michael Zifcak, longtime head of Collins Booksellers, died on June 30. He was 96. Australian Booksellers Association CEO Joel Becker called him "one of the most significant figures in bookselling in Australia over the second half of the 20th century."
In 1951, after immigrating to Australia from Czechoslovakia, Zifcak began work as an accountant at Collins Booksellers, which then consisted of three stores. Eventually under his auspices, Collins grew to more than 50 stores. He also founded Collins's publishing division, Hill of Content. He was longtime chairman of Collins.
He was also president of the Australian Booksellers Association and president of the International Booksellers Federation and founded the National Book Council. He was awarded an OBE for services to literature and was a cultural ambassador for UNESCO.
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