Contemporary poetry has
plenty to offer new readers, and plenty more for those who already follow it.
Yet its difficulty—and sheer variety—leaves many readers puzzled and overwhelmed. The critic, scholar
and poet Stephen Burt sets out to help.
In Close Calls with
Nonsense: How to Read New Poetry, Victoria University of Wellington’s
International Institute of Modern Letters (IIML) presents a public masterclass
on poetry. Steered by Victoria University Emeritus Professor Bill Manhire, Burt
will guide the audience through a number of contemporary poems by writers from
the United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand, illuminating their methods
and unfolding their pleasures. This event aims to introduce both tentative and
long-time poetry readers to the rewards of reading new poetry. Burt will also
give a reading of their poems.
Burt is Professor of
Poetry at Harvard University. Their influential reviews and books have made
them one of the leading critics of their generation, and their enthusiasm for
new writing has helped to establish the careers of younger poets, and helped
audiences to appreciate their work.
Burt’s 1998 essay ‘The
Elliptical Poets’ is widely credited with identifying a new school of poetry.
The book that followed, Close Calls With Nonsense (2009), includes
an essay on James K. Baxter among those on more recent poets.
In their new book, The
Poem is You, Burt explores 60 American poems. Publisher’s Weekly wrote
that: “Burt’s many ways of looking at a poem will inspire new students and accomplished
poets, especially as many of his meditations circle the question of what poetry
does or should do: making readers pay attention, ask questions, and experience
new things.”
In 2012 a NY Times
interview hailed Burt as ‘Poetry’s Cross-Dressing Kingmaker’. Burt identifies
as transgender, and their poetry chapbook All-Season Stephanie (2015)
explores coming of age as it might have happened for their female alter-ego.
Burt prefers to use the gender-neutral pronoun ‘they’.
Close Calls With
Nonsense is presented
by the IIML in partnership with City Gallery Wellington. Admission is free,
with all welcome. The gallery will be open prior to the event for visitors to
view the exhibition Cindy Sherman (exhibition entry charges apply).
What: Close Calls With Nonsense, with
Stephen Burt and Bill Manhire
When: 5.30–7pm, Monday 12 December
Where: City Gallery, Wellington
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