Writers in the Library will feature poetry with a French flavor on Wednesday, October 5. Poets reading from their works at 7 p.m. in the Hodges Library Auditorium on the UT campus will include J. Bradford Anderson, Darren Jackson, Marilyn Kallet, and Rose Becallo Raney. A mystery guest will open the show. Following the readings, French snacks will be on offer in the Mary Greer Room (next to Starbucks).

J. Bradford Anderson studied at the Sorbonne and received his PhD in comparative literature from Yale University. He translated Alexander von Humboldt’s Political Essay on the Island of Cuba (University of Chicago Press, 2011). His translations of Chantal Bizzini’s poetry have appeared in Two Lines: A Journal of Translation, and he is currently translating the poems of Georges Schehadé, the Franco-Lebanese writer.

Darren Jackson, editor of Grist: The Journal for Writers, is a doctoral student in poetry at UT Knoxville. His poetry has appeared in the journals Smartish Pace, Iron Horse, and Terrain, among others. His essay on translating Michaux’s La vie dans les plis was published by Public Republic. He is currently co-translating Chantal Bizzini’s poetry.

Marilyn Kallet is the director of UT’s Creative Writing Program and the author of 15 books, including Packing Light: New and Selected Poems. Her PhD is in comparative literature from Rutgers. She also studied at the Sorbonne, and her translations from the French include The Big Game, by Benjamin Péret, and Last Love Poems of Paul Eluard, from Black Widow Press.

Rose Becallo Raney is a science and technical writer who has won the Tennessee Writers Alliance prize in poetry. She received her MA in creative writing/poetry at UT.

The readers are all past participants in the “O Taste and See” poetry workshop taught by Marilyn Kallet for the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, in Auvillar, France.

Read what Marilyn Kallet says about the art of translation on CHAPTER 16: A COMMUNITY OF TENNESSEE WRITERS, READERS & PASSERBY: www.chapter16.org/content/putting-mustache-mona-lisa

Writers in the Library is sponsored by the Creative Writing Program of the University of Tennessee English Department in association with the UT Libraries.

For more information, contact Marilyn Kallet, Director, UT Creative Writing Program, mkallet@utk.edu.