Pulitzer Prize winner to visit IU

“When the light poured down through a hole in the clouds, we knew the great poet was going to show.”

So goes a line from the poem “The Great Poet Returns” by Pulitzer Prize winning and Laureate poet Mark Strand.

Strand will give a public reading of his work at 5:30 p.m. today in Fine Arts 015.
The College Arts and Humanities Institute invited Strand to campus as part of the Solitude series.

The Solitude series invites well-known authors and scholars who deal with the theme of solitude to lecture. The series looks at how solitude and creativity are related and how the invited artists’ work impact philosophy, society and politics.

Strand’s visit compliments the institute’s vision of inviting great figures to read their work.

“He is one of the best poets alive, not just of the English language,” Andrea Ciccarelli, director of the College Arts and Humanities Institute, said. “The idea is to bring the top authors in the literary world.”

Strand is the author of numerous collections of poetry which include “Man and Camel,” “Dark Harbor,” “The Continuous Life,” “The Story of Our Lives” and “Reasons for Moving.”

He is the recipient of several awards.

His poem “Blizzard of One” won the Pulitzer Prize in 1999. He received the National Institute of Arts and Letters Award, the Edgar Allen Poe Prize from The Academy of American Poets, a Fulbright and several prestigious grants. He has served as Poet Laureate of the United States and is a former Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets.

Strand is also a current professor in the Department of English and Literature at Columbia University.

Strand’s visit is not only meaningful because of his influence on the literary world but also because of his presence in the Lilly Library.

“The Lilly Library has Mark Strand’s papers and various collections,” Ciccarelli said.”It is important we are able to bring him here where his work is being held.”

The Lilly Library carries popular poems such as “Blizzard of One,” and rare privately printed poems such as “The Garden.”

Today’s reading will include a variety of his works. Ciccarelli describes the reading as a sort of anthology of his work.

“I think it’s exciting we have a school big enough to bring writers of this caliber,” said Emily Witsell, a graduate student in the School of Library and
Information Science.