Award-winning poet and biographer Daniel Mark Epstein will give a reading on Wednesday, Sept. 18. at 5 p.m. in the Fillius Events Barn. It will be followed by a book sale and signing. This event, sponsored by the English department, is free and open to the public.
I do not recall who trapped me in that darkness
The world knows as a vessel of light,
By what cruel trick or Asian sorcery
I was sucked out of this life like smoke
Into that bronze flume, then knocked about
To serve some adolescent fantasy…
This is an excerpt of Epstein's poem, The Genie, winter 2001. The entire poem is available at http://www.parisreview.com/tpr160/epstein.html.
Epstein received a bachelor's degree in English from Kenyon College in 1970. His poetry has earned him numerous awards, notably the prestigious Prix du Rome. Epstein is the author of several books of poetry; his most recent, The Traveler's Calendar, published by Overlook Press, was published last year to excellent reviews. He is also the author of three biographies: of U.S. spiritualist Aimee Semple McPherson (Harcout, 1994), of the musician Nat King Cole (Gale Group/Northeastern University Press, 2000), and his most recent What My Lips Have Kissed: The Loves & Love Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay (Henry Holt & Co., 2001).
