Event

The Practice of Poetry: An Intimate Discussion/Workshop With Sam Hamill

This is a unique opportunity to spend time with one of the major poets and cultural forces of our time. Sam Hamill is the author of more than forty books, including fifteen volumes of original poetry (most recently Measured by Stone and Almost Paradise: New & Selected Poems & Translations); four collections of literary essays, including A Poets Work and Avocations: On Poetry & Poets; and some of the most distinguished translations of ancient Chinese and Japanese classics of the last half-century. He co-founded, and for thirty-two years was editor, at Copper Canyon Press. He taught in prisons for fourteen years and has worked extensively with battered women and children.

Mr. Hamill was invited to the White House by Laura Bush in 2003 for an evening celebrating American poetry on the eve of the invasion of Iraq, the president having just outlined his plans for shock and awe. Hamill declined the invitation and extended his own invitation to fellow poets to speak for the conscience of our country. The result was Poets Against War, www.poetsagainstwar.net and the compilation of over 20,000 poems in opposition to war.
This event is funded in part by Poets & Writers, Inc. and the Social Mission Committee of Unity Temple Unitarian Universalist Congregation.