Saving the World Through Literature: Three Poets and a Diplomat
Friday, January 10, 2020Time 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM
Saving the World Through Literature: Three Poets and a Diplomat
with Christopher Merrill and poets Daniel Khalastchi, Erika Meitner, and Elizabeth Powell
Friday, January 10, 5 p.m., Hermitage Palm House, 6660 Manasota Key Rd., Englewood, FL 34223
Registration for this free program is required at www.HermitageArtistRetreat.org.
The centerpiece of the program is Christopher Merrill, director of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, whose talk will be bookended by three poems by writers in residence. Merrill’s honors include a knighthood in arts and letters from the French government. A member of the U.S. Commission for UNESCO and the National Council on the Humanities, Merrill will speak about his job, travel adventures, and the creative process he has observed across 30 years and millions of miles.
Erika Meitner’s poems have been anthologized widely, appearing in such publications as Ploughshares, Virginia Quarterly Review, The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, and Tin House. She was the U.S.-U.K. Fulbright Distinguished Scholar in Creative Writing at the Seamus Heaney Centre for Poetry at Queen’s University Belfast. Elizabeth Powell is a 2016 New Yorker’s “Books We Love” pick and a small press bestseller. Her work has appeared in Pushcart Prize Anthology 2013, Alaska Quarterly Review, Barrow Street, Ecotone, Harvard Review, Indiana Review, Missouri Review, Mississippi Review, Slope, Sugarhouse Review, and elsewhere. She is the editor of Green Mountains Review. Daniel Khalastchi is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and his work has been published in a variety of publications, including The Iowa Review, Mississippi Review, Poetry Northwest, and The Rumpus. He is the co-founder and managing editor of Rescue Press.