Jonathan Skinner and Annie Finch sitting while talking with each other next to a podium
Jonathan Skinner (left) and Annie Finch (right)

Jonathan Skinner and Annie Finch Reading / February 8, 2007

Event Report

The poets Jonathan Skinner and Annie Finch read to an audience of approximately twenty-five people in a special evening event in the New Writing Series on February 8, 2007.

Skinner’s set included four poems from the title sequence of his book Political Cactus Poems, several pages of his chapbook-length collaborative poem with Jane Sprague, Entropic Liberties, and a substantial preview of his work in progress, “Wetlands,” including the long sequence on New Orleans called “A Natural History of Levees.”

Finch recited a poem from Encyclopedia of Scotland from memory to start off her set, then read several poems from Eve, before settling in with numerous poems from Calendars. She also read from and discussed her translations from the French of Louise Labé. After the reading, the poets entertained questions from the audience. They spoke on topics including environmentalism, pagan spiritual practices, the relationship of meter to magic, ecological “edge effects,” the Troubadors, and bird song.

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