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UD prof to direct Romanian poetry workshops 3:14 p.m., May 19, 2005--Poets belong to an international community that crosses borders and boundaries, and this June, noted poet and professor of English at UD, Jeanne Murray Walker, has been invited to read her poetry and give a lecture at Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. She will then attend a three-day conference of approximately 170 Romanian poets, who are members of a group called Words Exchange. “I have been communicating with poets in Words Exchange for about three years after an e-mail friend and fellow poet in Austria put me in touch with the group,” Walker said. “I have been sending Words Exchange my poetry, as well as the poetry of other British and American poets. A poet, Andreea Luncan, has been translating my poetry into Romanian in preparation for the conference,” Walker said. At the conference, Walker will direct several workshops and give readings of her poetry with groups who will discuss and critique English and Romanian poems. “The conference participants will consider issues of poetic forms, translation, globalization and publication both in Romania and abroad,” Walker said. “Romania has a long, proud history of culture and letters,” Walker said, “which were suppressed under the Soviets. Romanian poets are eager to reach out and connect with the poetry community in the United States and other countries.” After the conference, Words Exchange plans to publish the poetry read during the conference and make it available to the public. Walker also has been asked by periodicals that publish poetry in the United States to write about the poets and poetry she discovers on her trip to Romania. Through serendipity, a graduate student in the English department, Andreea Fodor, graduated from Babes-Bolyai University, and has filled Walker in about Romanian life and culture. “Like other Eastern European countries, the Romanians are a hospitable and welcoming people, and I am looking forward to working and being with them,” Walker said. Walker is the author of six books of poetry including A Deed to the Light, published in 2004 by the University of Illinois Press; Fugitive Angels, Coming Into History and Nailing Up the Home Sweet Home, and her poetry has appeared in anthologies and journals. She also is a playwright, whose works have been published and also produced in several cities. For her work, she has received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, seven Pennsylvania State Arts Council fellowships and the prestigious Pew Fellowship in the Arts. To learn how to subscribe to UDaily, click here. |
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