April 13, 2011, Wednesday - Panel discussion Cosponsored with the National Book Foundation at The Loft

Time: 7:00pm

Location: The Loft, 1011 Washington Avenue South, Target Performance Hall

In collaboration with the National Book Foundation, the Loft presents poets, professors, critics, book sellers, and publishers responding to the list of winners of the National Book Award in Poetry since 1950. Among the winners of the award are Robert Bly, Marilyn Hacker, Lucille Clifton, Mark Doty, and, most recently, Terrance Hayes. What, if any, is the connective tissue between these poets? Do they represent something uniquely American? Was their selection the result of a political moment? What story do they tell about American poetry since 1950? With Philip S. Bryant, Arleta Little, Kristin Naca, Daniel Slager, and Hans Weyandt. Moderated by Eric Loberer.

Philip S. Bryant is the author of several collections of poetry, including Sermon on a Perfect Spring Day, which was nominated for a 1999 Minnesota Book Award in Poetry. His most recent collection is Stompin’ at The Grand Terrace:  A Jazz Memoir in Verse with music by Carolyn Wilkins. Born and raised in Chicago, Bryant is a Professor of English at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota.

Arleta Little is the Executive Director of the Givens Foundation for African American Literature where she has worked for more than five years to enrich cultural understanding and learning through programs that advance and celebrate African American literature and writers.  As part of her work at the Givens Foundation, she produces the NOMMO African American Author Series, a series of conversations between black writers on the state of the art of African American literature.  As a poet, Arleta has studied with literary masters Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Ishmael Reed, and Patricia Smith.  She holds degrees in English, Social Work, and Public Affairs.  Her poetry has been published in Konch Magazine and she has edited conversations with luminary authors for Black Renaissance Noire.  She is currently working on her first book of poetry.

Eric Lorberer holds an MFA in Poetry from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He has published poems in dozens of literary journals, ranging from American Poetry Review to VOLT, and his essays and reviews have appeared in newspapers, magazines, and anthologies. He has received a SASE/Jerome Fellowship for his poetry, and an essay version of his talk "The Ashbery Bridge" was named a Notable Essay in The Best American Essays 2008. As the editor of Rain Taxi Review of Books, he is responsible for the voice and style that has brought the magazine widespread acclaim. Lorberer also is the director of the Twin Cities Book Festival, has served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, and speaks at conferences and literary festivals around the country as an advocate for independent publishing and literary culture.

Kristin Naca is a long-time member of the Macondo Writers’ Workshop in San Antonio, Texas. Her collection of poetry, BIRD EATING BIRD, was selected for the National Poetry Series mtvU Prize in 2008 and appears with Harper Perennial. It was named finalist for the Audre Lorde Prize and Lambda Literary Award. Naca has held fellowships from Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Consortium of Liberal Arts Colleges, and University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She serves as the 2010-11 Poetry Mentor at the Loft Literary Center. She teaches creative writing, Latino and Asian American Poetry at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Daniel Slager is the Publisher and CEO of Milkweed Editions. Prior to joining Milkweed as Editor-in-Chief in 2005, he was an Editor at Harcourt Trade Publishers in New York, where he worked with internationally renowned writers such as Günter Grass, José Saramago, Wislawa Szymborska, and Umberto Eco. And prior to joining Harcourt, he was the Associate Editor of Grand Street, a leading quarterly magazine of literature and fine arts.

Hans Weyandt has been selling books in St. Paul and Minneapolis since 1999. A co-owner of Micawber's Books since 2003, his entire adult life has been professionally devoted to selling great books. Poetry speaking, he loves Marie Howe, Yusef Komunyakaa and Richard Wright.

Free