2nd Sunday featured reader: Henry Sayre

The Deschutes Public Library Presents

Second Sunday: The Poetry of William Carlos Williams

Sunday, May 10, 2009

The Bend Public Library, Brooks Room

3:00 p.m.

(April 23, 2009) OSU-Cascades professor Henry M. Sayre will discuss the life and poetry of William Carlos Williams at this month’s celebration of the written word. Second Sunday in May will take place Sunday, May 10^th at 3:00 p.m. in the Brooks Room of the Bend Public Library. An open mic will follow the reading, and this program is free and open to the public.

William Carlos Williams (September 17, 1883 – March 4, 1963) was an American poet associated with modernism and Imagism. Although his primary occupation was as a pediatrician, Williams had a full and prolific literary career. His work consists of short stories, poems, plays, novels, critical essays and an autobiography. Williams is known for inventing an entirely new form of American poetry whose subject matter was centered on everyday circumstances of life and common people. His work received increasing attention in the 1950s and 1960s as younger poets, including the Beats, were impressed by the accessibility of his language. His major works include Kora in Hell (1920), Spring and All (1923), Pictures from Brueghel and Other Poems (1962), and Imaginations (1970).

Henry M. Sayre, who will lead the discussion of William’s work, is a Distinguished Professor of Art History at the OSU-Cascades campus in Bend. In his writing and research, Sayre focuses on the arts and their interrelations, particularly on contemporary genres such as performance and installation. He has won many awards for his teaching, and has received numerous grants and fellowships, including three from the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is the author of seven books and co-editor of another, including The Visual Text of William Carlos Williams (Illinois University Press, 1983).

For questions about this or other library events, please visit the library at www.dpls.us or call Lisa McGean at 312-1034. Those wishing to attend events that have special needs resulting from a disability should contact Lisa at 312-1034 at least three days prior to the event.