Residents of the Upper Valley will soon be able to hear the acclaimed work of a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet in person at a certain local bookstore. This evening, renowned poet Galway Kinnell will be reading at the Norwich Bookstore from his new collection of poetry, "Strong Is Your Hold: Poems."
Kinnell's first new collection of poetry in nearly a decade touches on many topics ranging from love, sexuality and mythic figures to his friends, literary heroes and his family.
The title of the volume is derived from a poem by Walt Whitman, whom Kinnell credits as one of his influences. Due to be on bookshelves Nov. 8, the volume seems to lean towards more of a spiritually focused concentration, though themes of social issues, common in his earlier works, still resonate through his new pieces.
Of particular interest is his poem "When the Towers Fell," which is dedicated as a requiem for those who died in the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. Kinnell recited the poem at the Library of Congress on Oct. 12 as part of the Fall 2006 Literary Season.
The former Vermont State Poet from 1989 to 1993, Kinnell made an appearance at Dartmouth in 1996, when he came to honor his friend, former Dartmouth professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Richard Eberhart, in an homage that brought literary giants such as Allen Ginsberg to the campus. Kinnell spoke fondly at the time of Eberhart's powerful work and immense talent.
Kinnell, who spends his time both in Vermont and New York City, was born in Providence, R.I., in 1927. He said that, as a child, he was turned on to poetry by the works of Emily Dickinson and Edgar Allen Poe. Beyond their actual works, he also spoke of an attraction to their solitary lives.
His multitude of wordly experiences has surely informed his poetic works. He has traveled the world as a Fulbright Scholar, and he worked during the Civil Rights Era with the Congress of Racial Equality in order to promote and realize the goal of workplace integration in the South. His involvement caused him to be arrested, an event he recalls in his book-long poem "The Book of Nightmares" (1971), which was also influenced by his thoughts on the Vietnam War.
Kinnell studied both at Princeton and the University of Rochester before beginning his literary career.
The former MacArthur Fellow's poetry volumes include "A New Selected Poems" (2000), which was a finalist for the National Book Award; "When One Has Lived A Long Time Alone" (1990); "Mortal Acts, Mortal Works" (1980) and "Selected Poems" (1980), for which he received the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. He was a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, as well as the Erich Maria Remarque Professor of Creative Writing at New York University.
The reading will begin at 7 p.m. at the Norwich Bookstore.
