"E-POETRY 2001: An International Digital Poetry Festival," the first convocation to focus on the state of the art of digital poetry, will be held at UB April 19-21, with special pre-festival events scheduled for April 18.

	"In My Eye, I Saw Creeley's," created by Jim Dine for Robert Creeley's 70th birthday in 1996.

The festival-the first of its kind in the world-is expected to draw participants from Europe, Japan and Australia, as well as Canada and the United States. It will focus on kinetic/visual poetic works produced in networked and programmable media, hypertext and multiple practices.

Loss Glazier, conference coordinator and director of the Electronic Poetry Center (EPC) at UB, expects the festival to follow the tradition of "New Poetry" festivals of the past.

"We want to provide a context for readings, conversations and social interactions," he says, "and a locus for the coming together in a non-hierarchical manner of the different views, practices and theories that define this emerging field."

Featured poets will read, perform and exhibit works that define the state of the art in digital poetries. An emphasis will be made on presenting internationally influential practitioners whose contributions have yet to be publicly recognized in the United States. This will be the first presentation of such works in this range and depth in a single venue.

The festival will include morning and afternoon panels highlighted by featured readings in the afternoons and evenings. The panels and roundtable discussions will provide the opportunity for digital practitioners, scholars and electronic editors/publishers to engage in conversations on crucial, controversial and/or critical questions about these evolving forms.

In addition to the Electronic Poetry Center, sponsors include just buffalo literary center, the Poetics Program in the Department of English and the College of Arts and Sciences.