Athens, Ga. – Poet Kevin Prufer will read from his work beginning at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 28 atCiné, 234 West Hancock Avenue, Athens. The reading is free and open to the public and is sponsored by The Georgia Review (published from the University of Georgia since 1947) and the Georgia Poetry Circuit, a twenty-five-year-old consortium of colleges and universities that sponsors tours of three poets around the state annually.
Local writer Michael Tod Edgerton will open for Prufer. The Georgia Review will also debut its Winter 2009 issue, which includes a long section of writings by and about the award-winning Albert Goldbarth as well as artwork from Athens-based photographer Michael J. Marshall.
Prufer is the author of four books of poetry, including National Anthem (2008), and the editor of three anthologies. He also serves as editor of Pleiades: A Journal of New Writing, is an associate editor ofAmerican Book Review, and is vice president/secretary of the National Book Critics Circle.
Born in 1969 in Cleveland, Ohio, Prufer received his undergraduate degree from the College of Letters at Wesleyan University. He has graduate degrees from Hollins University and Washington University and currently lives in Warrensburg, Mo.
“The Twentieth Century,” Prufer’s elegy for the era just gone by, appeared in The Georgia Review for fall 2007 and began this way:
Kiss its cheek, then smooth its sad, gray hair.
Bring it secret cigarettes. How could they hurt
it anymore? A smoke to stanch the fear
is mercy in the end. The doctors purse
their lips or look away. They occupy their hands
with clipboards. Leave them to their notes. Smile. It’s what
the dying want. Not tears, you fool. Nor bland-
eyed sentiment. Truth, neither . . .
Edgerton is a doctoral student in English at UGA and the 2009-10 graduate assistant at The Georgia Review. His poems have appeared in Boston Review, Five Fingers Review, Sonora Review,Chelsea, Denver Quarterly, New Orleans Review, New American Writing, and Word For/Word, among other publications.
The winter 2009 Georgia Review’s Goldbarth feature includes ten of his new poems, a new essay, and a “self-interview” he composed especially for the issue; lively, insightful commentary on the man and his work by a variety of others; and a portfolio of photos of Goldbarth by Skyler Lovelace. The issue also presents new stories from Robin Black and Jerry McGahan; poems from Alice Friman, Sydney Lea, and others; “In Rehearsal,” Martha G. Wiseman’s essay about the personal and philosophical challenges posed by her growing up in a family of high-profile artists; and a portfolio of duotone photographs by Marshall, associate professor at the University of Georgia Lamar Dodd School of Art.
For more information, see thegeorgiareview.com, tgrblog.blogspot.com, or become a fan on Facebook, contact The Georgia Review office at 706/542-3481, or Ciné at athenscine.com or 706/353-7377.