For Immediate Release
Contact:Paxson MacDonald
804-977-1747
March 21 - 25, 2001
Charlottesville, Virginia (January 11) . . .The Seventh Annual Virginia Festival of the Book (VABook!) prepares for what may be the most exciting and eclectic five days of poetry in the Festival’s history. For the headline night, Charlottesville’s own Gregory Orr will read with the Poet Laureate of the United States, Stanley Kunitz, at the University of Virginia’s Culbreth Theater at 7:00 PM on Thursday, March 22. Later, Jayne Cortez and Cornelius Eady will take the Culbreth stage at 9:00 PM for an evening of Jazz Poetry.
"This year’s Festival features poets with a variety of approaches to the art," says VABook! Director Nancy Damon. "From urban Jazz Poetry to the metaphysical ruminations of Pulitzer Prize winner Charles Wright to David Budbill, occasionally featured on National Public Radio’s ‘All Things Considered’—we have it all."
Recent prize-winners abound at the 2001 VABook! Festival. Among the honored poets are Davis McCombs, winner the 1999 Yale Younger Poets Series for his book, Ultima Thule; Liz Waldner, winner of the Iowa Prize and the 2000 James A. Laughlin Award from the Academy of American Poets for A Point Is That Which Has No Part; and Deborah Tall, winner of the Kathryn A. Morton Prize in Poetry for Summons.
Of the nearly twenty poetry-related events at VABook!, a Jewish poets program will take place on Saturday, March 24, featuring National Book Critics Circle Finalist Alan Shapiro and award-winning poets Robin Becker, Myra Sklarew and Rick Chess. Cave Canem, the acclaimed African-American Poetry Writers Workshop, will sponsor a reading on Saturday as will the lauded Virginia literary journals Meridian and Shenandoah. A Spanish-language poetry program and a panel on translation are new to the festival this year.
Other distinguished poets to read include Kathryn Stripling Byer, Kate Daniels, George Garrett, Patricia Johnson, Lenard Moore, James Reiss, Mary Ann Samyn, Katherine Soniat, R.T. Smith, Luke Whisnant and many more.
The Festival of the Book will take place from March 21 through March 25. This five day free literary event offers author reading, panel discussions, workshops, informal conversations among writers and readers, and book signings—in all more than 200 free events at venues around Charlottesville, designed for those who love to read. Names of attending authors and a schedule of events for VABook! will be released and listed on the website at www.vabook.org as they become available. For more information about the Festival, call (804) 924-6890.
