Event: Musical Performance and Poetry Reading
Date: May 20, 2003 (Tuesday)
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Beckman Auditorium of The Ames Library, 1 Ames Plaza, Bloomington
Admission: Free, open to the public
Background: John O’Leary, visiting assistant professor of English and writer-in-residence at Illinois Wesleyan University for two years, will give his last reading as a faculty member at IWU before returning to his homeland of Ireland.
The event marks the publication of O’Leary’s book, Salt, a sequence of 77 "broken sonnets" written during his time in Illinois. He has been described by Irish Poet Laureate John Montague as “the most original and exciting new voice among the younger Irish poets.”
O’Leary was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and Trinity College, Dublin, and has lived for most of his adult life as a shepherd and fisherman on the remote Beara peninsula in the west of Ireland. His major work, a sequence on the life and miracles of the 6th century Irish shamanic Saint Columba entitled "Whether There is Sorrow in the Demons" was awarded the Arts Council of Ireland's Literature Award, and his poems are included in "The Great Book of Ireland."
Joining O’Leary onstage will be Gabriel Gudding, professor of English at Illinois State University. The traditional acoustic Appalachian band Banjulele will also perform.
Gudding, who will read from his collection “A Defense of Poetry,” is the winner of the 2001 Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize. Award-winning poet Denise Duhamel said of Gudding: "His zany imagery, ear for the absurd, and wry timing make his stanzas stand up and sparkle."
Contact: For additional information, contact the Illinois Wesleyan May Term office at (309) 556-3751.
