Mackey, Perloff Head UB Literary Series Lineup

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Poet, novelist and critic Nathaniel Mackey and Marjorie Perloff, one of the foremost and influential American critics of our time, will be among the literary figures who will speak and read this semester as part of "Wednesdays at 4 PLUS," the bi-annual series presented by the Poetics Program in the University at Buffalo Department of English.

Among the notable events of the series, which will run from Jan. 29 through May 3, will be an 80th birthday tribute to Jackson Mac Low, a major American writer and composer of performance pieces, essays, plays and radio works.

In addition, the series will include an appearance by Native American poet-essayist-fiction writer-storyteller Simon Ortiz, as well as mark the return to UB of two of the university's most noted poetics graduates -- Elizabeth Willis and Peter Gizzi.

All events will be free of charge and open to the public, except as noted. For a full listing of events, as well as access to updated information, visit the series Web site at http://epc.buffalo.edu/poetics/calendar/spring03.html.

For further information, call 645-3810 or email mdunlap@acsu.buffalo.edu.

Mackey, a professor of literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz, will read from his poetry at 4 p.m. Feb. 12 in the Screening Room of the Center for the Arts, North (Amherst) Campus. "A Conversation with Nathaniel Mackey" will take place earlier that day at 12:30 p.m. in 436 Clemens Hall, North Campus.

Mackey's books of poetry include "Whatsaid Serif," "Song of the Andoumboulou: 18-20" and "Eroding Witness." Some of his poetry focuses on musicians like John Coltrane and Jimi Hendricks. He also has recorded poetry with jazz accompaniment on a CD, and hosts a public radio program featuring African-American and Third World music.

His novels include "Djbot Baghostus's Run" and "Bedouin Hornbook." Mackey also is the author of "Discrepant Engagement: Dissonance, Cross-Culturality and Experimental Writing" and the editor of the literary magazine Hambone.

Perloff, whose critical writing is a major force in the study of modernist and contemporary American poetry, will read from "The Vienna Paradox," her memoir of Vienna, the Anschlus and coming to America that is forthcoming from New Directions press, at 4 p.m. March 19 in the Screening Room of the Center for the Arts. She also will speak at 12:30 p.m. March 20 in 438 Clemens Hall.

Her most recent books include "Wittgenstein's Ladder: Poetic Language and The Strangeness of the Ordinary," "Poetry On & Off the Page: Essays for Emergent Occasions" and "21st Century Modernism: The 'New' Poetics."

Perloff, who work has been called "brilliant" as well as "comprehensible," lectures frequently throughout North America and Europe. She is Sadie Dernham Patek Professor of Humanities Emerita at Stanford University. Her appearance is co-sponsored by the Poetry Society of America.

The birthday tribute to Mac Low, featuring Mac Low and his wife and frequent collaborator, Anne Tardos, will take place at 4 p.m. April. 2 in the Screening Room in the Center for the Arts. The tribute will include a poetry reading and performance. Mac Low also will speak at 12:30 p.m. April 3 in 438 Clemens.

A frequent visitor to UB, Mac Low is one of the major literary innovators of the 20th century. He has authored 26 books -- the most recent is "Doings: Assorted Performance Pieces 1955-2002" -- and his work has been published as well in many anthologies and periodicals. He also has read, exhibited, performed and broadcast in North and South America, Europe, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

In addition, Mac Low has taught at numerous schools, notably New York University. In recent years, he has taught creative writing at the University at Albany, Binghamton University, Temple, University of California, San Diego, Bard College and Brown University.

He has received fellowships and grants from numerous organizations, among them the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation, the Queen Elizabeth II Arts Council, the New York Foundation for the Arts and The Fund for Poetry.

Tardos is a poet, performer, visual artist and composer. She frequently writes multilingual poems and combines them with digitally modified video images. She is the author of the books "Cat Licked the Garlic" (Tsunami Editions), "Mayg-shem Fish" (Potes & Poets), "Uxudo" (O Books/Tuumba Press), and new from Granary Books, "The Dik-dik's Solitude."

Ortiz is a professor at the University of Toronto who still resides in his native New Mexico. He will speak at 12:30 p.m. April 15 in 540 Clemens, and read from his work at 4 p.m. April 16 in the Center for the Arts Screening Room.

His books include "Men on the Moon: Collected Short Stories," "Woven Stone," "After and Before the Lightning," "From Sand Creek" and most recently, "Speaking for the Generations: Native Writers on Writing," all published by the University of Arizona Press.

Gizzi and Willis, both of whom received doctorates from the UB Poetics Program, will read from their work at 4 p.m. April 9 in the CFA Screening Room. Willis will give a talk on "Christina Rossetti and Pre-Raphaelite Noir" at 12:30 p.m. April 10 in 438 Clemens Hall. She is the author of "Second Law" (Avenue B), "The Human Abstract" (Penguin) and forthcoming this winter from Burning Deck, "Turneresque." She teaches at Wesleyan University.

Gizzi, who directs the graduate writing program at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and is editor of "The House That Jack Built: The Collected Lectures of Jack Spicer" (Wesleyan), will lecture on Spicer at 2 p.m. April 10 in 438 Clemens. Gizzi's poetry collections include "Artificial Heart" (Burning Deck), "Periplum" (Avec) and the forthcoming "Some Values of Landscape and Weather" (Wesleyan).

"Wednesdays at 4 PLUS" is sponsored, in part, by the James H. McNulty Chair, Department of English (Dennis Tedlock); the Samuel P. Capen Chair of Poetry and the Humanities (Robert Creeley); the David Gray Chair of Poetry and Letters, Department of English (Charles Bernstein); the Melodia E. Jones Chair in French, Department of Modern Languages and Literatures (Gerard Bucher); The Poetry and Rare Books Collection (Robert Bertholf); Professor Myung Mi Kim; Just Buffalo Literary Center; the Poetry Society of America, and Poets and Writers, with funding through a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts.

The series is produced with the cooperation of the Center for the Arts, the Department of Media Study and Talking Leaves Books.