Red Hen Press and the Poetry Society of America present a celebration of the figure of Orpheus, mythologized in poetry and music. Join us to hear readings by renowned poets Henri Cole, Robin Coste Lewis, and Atsuro Riley, and a performance by heralded pianist Paul Barnes, who will perform selections inspired by Orpheus by Gluck, Philip Glass, and Franz Liszt.
Paul Barnes, a pianist praised by the New York Times for his "Lisztian thunder and deft fluidity," has electrified audiences with his intensely expressive playing and cutting-edge programming. He has been featured six times on APM's Performance Today, and recently gave the world premiere of longtime friend and collaborator Philip Glass's Piano Quintet "Annunciation."
Henri Cole was born in Fukuoka, Japan. He has published nine collections of poetry, including Nothing to Declare and Middle Earth, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry, in addition to the memoir Orphic Paris. He has received many awards for his work, including the Jackson Prize, the Kingsley Tufts Award, the Rome Prize, the Berlin Prize, the Lenore Marshall Award, and the Medal in Poetry from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He teaches at Claremont McKenna College and lives in Boston.
Robin Coste Lewis's debut collection, Voyage of the Sable Venus, won the 2015 National Book Award for Poetry. A finalist for the Rita Dove Poetry Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Hurston/Wright Poetry Award, and the California Book Award, she is a Provost's Fellow in Poetry and Visual Studies at the University of Southern California and has taught at Wheaton College, Hunter College, Hampshire College, the University of Southern California, and the NYU Low-Residency MFA in Paris.
Atsuro Riley is the author of Romey's Order (University of Chicago Press), winner of the Whiting Writer's Award, the Kate Tufts Discovery Award, The Believer Poetry Award, and the Witter Bynner Award from the Library of Congress. He has been a fellow of the Lannan Foundation and the NEA. Brought up in the South Carolina lowcountry, Riley lives in San Francisco.
Co-presented by the Poetry Society of America and Red Hen Press.
The Broad Stage
1310 11th Street
Santa Monica, CA 90401