Events

  Those deep thoughts and wrenching feelings so many of us pour out on paper in our teen years - is that poetry? Can anyone be taught to write poetry? Why study poetic forms? How does a teacher approach poetry in translation? To rhyme or not to rhyme? Join us at watchung booksellers on Sunday, December 4th, at 4 pm. for a lively exploration of these and other questions, in a Writing Matters panel discussion titled Passion in Tranquility: Teaching the Writing of Poetry. The panelists: Nicole Cooley, a native of New Orleans and the author of the collections Afflicted Girls, Resurrection, and most recently, Breach. She is a Professor of English and Creative Writing at Queens College-City University of New York where she directs the new MFA program in Creative Writing and Literary Translation. Mariana Romo-Carmona is a Chilean poet and translator who teaches at City University of New York's Department of Hispanic Languages. She is the author of Sobrevisi y otros complejos: Narrative Poems in Englillano. She is co-founder (with Mercedes Salvador), of Escritorial, a literary network for writers who write in Spanish and/or English, providing translation and other vital editorial services. Roger Sedarat is the author of the award-winning Dear Regime: Letters to the Islamic Republic, and Ghazal Games. He teaches poetry and literary translation at Queens College, City University of New York, and is working on a full-length collection of ghazals by the 14th century Sufi Persian poet, Hafez. Madeline Tiger is a poet, teacher and mentor of many years' standing in the academic community. She is the author of numerous poetry collections, among them Birds of Sorrow and Joy and The Atheist's Prayer. She has worked as  Artist-in-Education in New Jersey schools, and is a Dodge Foundation poet.