The Life of a Poet: Conversations with Ron Charles featuring August Kleinzahler

Описание: The Life of a Poet is a series of in-depth conversations at Hill Center in Washington, DC between Ron Charles of The Washington Post and the nation's most influential poets. Co-sponsored by The Washington Post and the Library of Congress. Made possible with the financial support of National Capital Bank.

August Kleinzahler is the author of eleven books of poetry, including: The Hotel Oneira; Sleeping It Off in Rapid City; The Strange Hours Travelers Keep, winner of the International Griffin Poetry Prize; Live from the Hong Kong Nile Club: Poems, 1975-1990; Green Sees Things in Waves; and Red Sauce, Whiskey and Snow.

In a blurb for an early volume of Kleinzahler’s work, Allen Ginsberg wrote: “August Kleinzahler’s verse line is always precise, concrete, intelligent and rare—that quality of ‘chiseled’ verse memorable in Basil Bunting’s and Ezra Pound’s work. A loner, a genius.” Writing for the New York Times, Timothy Williams described Kleinzahler’s work as “a modernist swirl of sex, surrealism, urban life and melancholy, with a jazzy backbeat. [His poems] are a reckless tumble of words mixing the high and the low, like a rummage sale after the death of someone who adored both Shakespeare and smut.”

His honors include a fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Lila Acheson-Reader’s Digest Award for Poetry, an Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a Berlin Prize Fellowship, the Griffin International Poetry Prize.

Ron Charles is the editor of The Washington Post's book section and a weekly fiction critic. For several years, he also edited The Post's "Poet's Choice" column in Book World. His reviews have won the National Book Critics Circle Award for best criticism and 1st place for Arts & Entertainment Commentary from the Society for Features Journalism. Washingtonian Magazine named him as one of the 40 people who shaped DC in 2010.