Two Special Programs Associated with the Annual New England College Summer Poetry Reading Series
Reading and Book Signing with Paula McLain
Paula McLain will read from her best-selling novel, The Paris Wife, on Saturday, June 25 at 3:30 p.m. The reading and book signing, in association with the annual series offered by the MFA Program in Poetry at New England College, will be held in the Simon Center and is free and open to the public.
McLain, a core faculty member of the New England College MFA Program in Poetry, has been a fixture on most national best-seller lists since The Paris Wife debuted in February. The story is a vivid reimagining of Paris in the 1920s, when American expatriate writers such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, and Ernest Hemingway flocked to Paris to live the bohemian life. As seen through the eyes of Hemingway’s first wife Hadley, The Paris Wife captures the excitement, drama, and seductive atmosphere of the times.
According to Entertainment Weekly, “By making the ordinary come to life, McLain has written a beautiful portrait of being in Paris in the glittering 1920s – as a wife and one’s own woman…McLain’s vivid, clear-voiced novel is a conjecture, an act of imaginary autobiography on the part of the author. Yet her biographical and geographical research is so deep, and her empathy for the real Hadley Richardson so forthright (without being intrusively femme partisan), that the account reads as very real indeed.
“We’re all looking forward to celebrating Paula McLain’s phenomenal success,” said James Harms, Academic Director of the MFA Program in Poetry at New England College. “She’s been a crucial part of our community of poets in the MFA Program for many years, and it means a lot to everyone that she’s receiving such well-deserved recognition for The Paris Wife.”
McLain, a highly regarded teacher, is the author of another novel, Ticket to Ride, a memoir, Like Family, and two collections of poetry, Stumble, Gorgeous and Less of Her.
June 28th Tomaz Salamun
Reading Canceled
Slovenian Poet Tomaz Salamun
Tomaz Salamun, considered Slovenia’s greatest living poet.
One of the foremost figures of the Eastern European poetical avant-garde, Salamun’s books have been translated into nineteen languages. Nine of his thirty-seven collections are available in English, including Woods and Chalices, translated by Brian Henry, a core faculty member of the New England College MFA Program in Poetry.
Salamun is widely admired in the United States and is among the most popular international poets. He has taught at many American universities including Columbia, the University of Texas, the University of Richmond, and the University of Iowa. Publishers Weekly writes, "Salamun has become an influence, and a mentor, for plenty of young American poets. One reason lies in Salamun's postmodern mix of giddy and global with the earthy retrospect he takes from his homeland.”
For more information on the Annual Summer Poetry Reading series at New England College or the MFA Program in Poetry, please contact Jacqueline Gens at 603-219-9172.
