A much-perused poetry anthology of mine—one which purports to represent the best in contemporary American poetry—offers an idiosyncratic selection of poems by Mark Doty. One piece is about urban decay, another involves goldfish and AIDS, and one eulogizes a school of mackerel in a manner that somehow evokes the aesthetics and thematics of both Herman Melville and Elizabeth Bishop.
Doty reads this week as part of the UMass Juniper Summer Writing Institute. Other participants include (but are not limited to) UMass faculty members Dara Wier, Noy Holland, James Tate and Charles D'Ambrosio. The series gets a kickstart with appearances by Lydia Davis (pictured above) and Matthew Zapruder (pictured below).
June 22-28, $5-10/suggested donation, 7:30 p.m., Hasbrouck Lab, Room 20, UMass-Amherst, (413) 545-5510, www.umass.edu/juniperinstitute/schedule.html.
