Literary Event

Caedmon Records LP recordings of famous poets reading their own work.

A little chance to relax and think and absorb noted works of poetry as read by its authors. This month, we continue our tour of Caedmon recordings from the 20th century, and visit the 1950s recordings of Pound, Eliot, and Sitwell: Masters of Irony, Collage, and Innovation? Or Complicated Fops and Poseurs?

Joan Kwon Glass's most recent collection, Daughter of Three Kingdoms, is the winner of the 2024 Perugia Press Poetry Prize. Daughter of Three Gone Kingdoms explores themes familiar to those who know Kwon's work: it's described as part lamentation and part hymn—an illumination of diasporic hungers, hauntings, absence, and resilience. This collection "explores colonialism and “postcolonialism” through disordered eating, suicide loss, religious damage, familial estrangement, addiction, motherhood, and recovery.

Spend an evening listening to brilliant short fiction read aloud by actors from the New Haven Theater Company. After the reading the stories are broken down, discussed, illuminated, if you will, by Bennett Lovett-Graff.

Spinning Poetry is a program where we’re invited to hear poets as they read their own works, many of which are old familiar pieces, but many of which have fallen out of fashion or just gotten swallowed by time. By playing Caedmon Records’ recordings of these readings, we can gain a new appreciation for works we’ve gotten accustomed to just seeing, if we see them at all, on a printed page. Now: the voices come alive! Held monthly, with Philip Beard as your literary tour guide.

A free, open to the public opportunity for readers who can’t seem to find time to just sit and read. It’s a book club minus the assigned reading, minus the literary peacocking, minus the interpersonal drama. Come sit in one of our chairs, and focus on whatever book you choose — either Bring Your Own Book or pluck one off our shelves! This program is free and open to the public.

Pen aficionados will convene at the Institute Library — are you in? Jonathan Weinberg, artist and curator of the Maurice Sendak Foundation, will lead a discussion and demonstration of the wonders of fountain pens for writing and drawing. If you share the fountain pen addiction, you are welcome to bring some of your own favorites. For those new to the world of pen collecting, there will be plenty of advice on how to get started and the opportunity to try out new and old pens. All are welcome!