Lannan Readings & Conversations
Pattiann Rogers
with Christopher MerrillWednesday May 4 2005
Pattiann Rogers is considered one of America's finest contemporary poets, writing densely detailed, thickly textured poems describing the natural world and one's place in it. In the tradition of Emerson, Whitman, and Oliver, Rogers's wise and complex poems read like a series of witty but deeply felt explorations of the physical world and the presence of the divine.
She is the author of twelve books of poetry including her newest collection Firekeeper: Selected Poems (2005), Generations (2004), and Song of the World Becoming: New and Collected Poems, 1981-2001. Prior awards include two National Endowment for the Arts grants, a Guggenheim Award, the Tietjens Prize and the Hokin Prize from Poetry magazine, and four Pushcart Prizes. She lives with her husband, a retired geophysicist, in Colorado.
Christopher Merrill has written on contemporary American poetry, nature, French Surrealism, Georgia O’Keeffe, the Third Balkan War, and soccer. He has taught classes in modern American poetry, world literature, translation, literary journalism, creative nonfiction, and prosody.
His most recent books include Things of the Hidden God: Journey to the Holy Mountain (nonfiction), Only the Nails Remain: Scenes From the Balkan Wars (nonfiction), and Brilliant Water (poetry). He is the Director of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa.