The University of Memphis will host a distinguished poetThursday as part of this year's River City Writers Series.
Richard Jackson, an accomplished poet and UC FoundationProfessor of English at the University of Tennessee, Chattanooga,will read from his work in Patterson Hall, Room 456, at 4 p.m.
"We have the good fortune to have a terrific and prolific poetto come and speak," said Cary Holladay, assistant professor anddirector of the River City Writers Series.
Jackson has been an author, editor and translator of poetrythroughout his career. He is the author of seven books, including"Svetoi Narazen," "Heart's Bridge," "Alive All Day" and his mostrecent work, "Unauthorized Autobiography: New and Selected Poems."Currently Jackson is working on the translation of Italian poetsPavese and Pascoli.
"Richard Jackson is a very versatile and highly imaginativewriter," Holladay said.
Jackson has garnered numerous awards including five PushcartPrizes and fellowships from the Guggenheim, the National Endowmentfor the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
He was also awarded the Order of Freedom Medal for literary andhumanitarian work by the president of Slovenia, and has raisedmoney for refugees of the Balkan wars and served with the PENSarajevo Committee.
The River City Writer Series was created in 1977 at The U of Mto help bring renowned authors and poets to speak at TheUniversity. Many well-read contemporary writers, whose genre rangesfrom fiction to poetry, have participated in the series. Pastspeakers have included Nobel Literature Prize winners SeamusHeaney, Czeslaw Milosz and Derek Walcott.
The series usually hosts five to six writers each year. Futurespeakers for the 2003 series will include Robert Olen Butler andElizabeth Dewberry, Oct. 22, and Bobbie Ann Mason, Nov. 18. Butleris a Pulitzer-Prize winner for his collection of stories in "A GoodScent from a Strange Mountain", while Dewberry is an accomplishedplaywright. Mason has authored several novels and has beenpublished in Redbook and the New Yorker.
"The series allows students to meet writers who are successfulin their field and ask them questions," Holladay said.
All of the events are free to the public.
