Prolific Brown University poet slated for Frostic Reading Series

Contact: Mark Schwerin
Photo of poet Cole Swensen.

Swensen

KALAMAZOO—A Brown University professor and author of 13 award-winning books of poetry will appear in late November as part of the Fall 2013 Gwen Frostic Reading Series at Western Michigan University.

Cole Swensen will read at 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 21, in 208-209 Bernhard Center. The reading is free and open to the public.

Cole Swensen

Swensen is the author of "New Math," winner of the National Poetry Series competition; "Noon," which won the New American Poetry Series Award; "Try," winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize; and "Goest," a finalist for the National Book Award. Her most recent poetry collection, "Gravesend," was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Poetry.

Swensen also is an accomplished translator. Her translation of "Island of the Dead" by contemporary French poet Jean Frémon won the 2004 PEN USA Award for Literary Translation. The recipient of a 2006 Guggenheim Fellowship and co-editor of the 2009 Norton anthology "American Hybrid," Swensen is the founder and editor of La Presse, which publishes English-language translations of contemporary French poets. She teaches in the Literary Arts Program at Brown University

About the series

The Frostic Reading Series presents acclaimed creative writers from across the nation and beyond. Every year, a diverse range of readings that encompasses poetry, fiction, nonfiction and drama attract both on- and off-campus audiences.

For more information, visit wmich.edu/english/events/frostic.html.