Andrew Epstein, Professor and Chair for Graduate Studies at Florida State University, will give a talk on “Fence-Sitting Raised to the Level of an Esthetic Ideal: John Ashbery and the Poetics of Middle Age” this Thursday at 4:30pm in Stewart Commons 104. While still a graduate student in 1996, Professor Epstein presented a paper on Frank O’Hara and film in the National Poetry Foundation (NPF) Conference on the Poetry & Poetics of the 1950s. He’s presented frequently at NPF conferences since and is the author of two studies of post-1945 poetry, Beautiful Enemies and Attention Equals Life, both from Oxford University Press. Candidates in the Master’s degree program are especially encouraged to attend Epstein’s presentation. His talk is co-sponsored by the English Department, the National Poetry Foundation, and the McGillicuddy Humanities Center.
We’ll be back in the same space at 8pm to hear recordings and live readings of Ashbery’s poems. If you’d like to participate in the evening event, please write to english.chair@maine.edu with a short list of the Ashbery poems (or other texts) you’d like to read. You’ll find a copy of his Collected Poems in the Wicks Reading Room.
Part of the MHC’s year-long exploration of humanities approaches to aging across the ages.