Stephen Dobyns to Give Silverman Poetry Reading

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Poet and novelist Stephen Dobyns will deliver the 26th Oscar Silverman Annual Poetry Reading at 8 p.m. Nov. 8 in 250 Baird Hall on the University at Buffalo North (Amherst) Campus.

The reading, part of the Poetics Program's "Wednesdays at 4 PLUS" literary series, will be free of charge and open to the public.

It is presented in memory of Oscar Silverman, the distinguished UB scholar and teacher who chaired the Department of English and directed the University Libraries. Silverman also helped to develop UB's remarkable collection of 20th-century poetry.

Dobyns has published 10 books of poems, 20 novels, a book of essays and a book of short stories. Ten of the novels form a series of mysteries set in Saratoga Springs.

His first book of poems, "Concurring Beasts," was the Lamont Poetry Selection for 1972 of the Academy of American Poets. His fifth book, "Black Dog, Red Dog," was a winner in the National Poetry Series. His sixth book, "Cemetery Nights," received the Poetry Society of America's Melville Cane Award in 1987.

His book of prose, poems, aphorisms and a dictionary, "The Porcupine's Kisses," will be published by Penguin this month.

Dobyns has received a Guggenheim and three fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts, as well as numerous awards for individual poems, including Pushcart Anthology prizes and prizes from Poetry and the American Poetry Review.

He has written more than 50 book reviews for such newspapers as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune and The Boston Globe, and has published more than 30 essays and introductions in various books and anthologies.

He has taught at more than 10 colleges and universities, including Boston University, the University of Iowa and Emerson College. This year, he is teaching in the MFA program at Sarah Lawrence College.