Saturday, August 09, 2008

Calendar Alert: James Hoch at Dartmouth, 8/14

Each year The Frost Place selects a resident poet for the summer -- a poet who will live where Robert Frost did (1915-20), eat in the Frost kitchen, sit on the porch to gaze at the White Mountains. Because the house in Franconia, NH, was Frost's home for the transition from "barely published" to American poet of note, tradition now calls for the selection of a resident poet in a parallel time of life: a book or two published, and eager to move forward from there. This year's resident poet is James Hoch, who read his work to an excited gathering at The Frost Place on July 27. Happily, there are two more opportunities to here Hoch read in New England this summer. Here's the first:

Poet James Hoch will be reading on Thursday, August 14 at 4:00 pm in the Wren Room in Sanborn House at Dartmouth College. Hoch is the 2008 Resident Poet at The Frost Place in Franconia, NH. His first book of poetry, A Parade of Hands, was published in 2003 by Silverfish Review Press and won the Gerald Cable Award. In 2007 his second book, Miscreants, was published by W.W. Norton. His poems have appeared in numerous publications including the Kenyon Review and Slate. Hoch lives in Grandview, NY and teaches at Ramapo College of New Jersey.
This reading is free and open to the public. There will be a small reception to follow in the Poetry Room.


Need directions? http://www.dartmouth.edu/~maps/directions

The second chance this month to hear Hoch read will be Wednesday August 27 at 7:30 p.m. at the St. Johnsbury Athenaeum (www.stjathenaeum.org), where he'll be joined by Frost Place director Jim Schley, also reading poetry (Schley's 2008 collection is As When, In Season). The reading is free, open to the public, and accessible.

It's a huge savings in travel costs for those of us in Northern New England to be able to get to Hoch's readings this summer, rather than having to trek to New Jersey and New York. Based on his July presentation, this energetic, edgy, and clearly narrative poet is well worth the journey, though.

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