Two events in the history of redemption happened this week that seem to me related, and indicative of our historical moment: the gangster Jeremy Meeks was awarded a modeling contract, and Donna Tartt won the Pulitzer Prize. I’m fascinated by both, largely because I’ve been reading long Victorian poems.
Read MoreBehind-the-Curtain Reading
photo by David Wittig Photography
I'm giving a reading next week at the historic Zimmer Theater in Tuebingen, Germany (named for the Zimmer family, the poet Holderlin's caretakers during his madness). I'll be reading with Marcus Hammerschmidt, a local poet with whom I've been working to translate some of my poems into German (we'll debut some translations at the reading).
The Behind-the-Curtain is a fun structure for a Reading Series. The audience doesn't get to meet or see the writers, who read from onstage with the curtain drawn. It focuses the attention more on the verse than on the poor nervous poet; in the second half though, the curtain is pulled back and there are more readings and discussion.
If you're in Southern Germany, come check it out; for those of you who will miss it, I'll post some images to this space and check back in after the fact.