The Distinguished Writers Series: Tomaž Šalamun and Meena Alexander October 12, 2010

Meena Alexander has published six volumes of poetry including Illiterate Heart, which won the PEN Open Book Award. She is the editor of Indian Love Poems and author of the volume of poems and short prose pieces, The Shock of Arrival: Reflections on Postcolonial Experience. Poetics of Dislocation appeared in 2009 in the University of Michigan’s Poets on Poetry Series. Her prose includes two novels, a memoir, and two academic studies on early English Romanticism. She has received fellowships from among others the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation, and the Rockefeller Foundation. She is University Distinguished Professor of English at the City University of New York.

Considered Slovenia's greatest living poet, Tomaž Šalamun was born in the city of Zagreb in 1941 and is considered one of foremost figures of the Eastern European avant-garde. His books have been translated in nineteen languages and nine of his thirty-seven books of poetry have been published in English. They include The Book for My Brother, Poker, Row, and Woods and Chalices. A new book of poetry, entitled Blue Tower, translated by Michael Biggins, is due out by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2010. He has been a visiting professor at several leading universities in the U.S. He lives in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Official Website: http://www.wellesley.edu/NCH/