http://www.counterbalancepoetry.org/

Carolyn Kizer was named a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 1995 and resigned in 1998 to protest the absence of women and people of color on the board. The action was consistent with a life of intense dedication to her craft and passionate pursuit of justice within and outside of her writing. In 1985, he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for a book of poems, Yin. From 1964-65, she served as a literature consultant for the U.S. State Department in Pakistan. She also was the first director of the National Endowment for the Arts literary program. Prior to Cool, Calm & Collected, she had published eight books of poetry.

In his notes for our program, Edwin Weihe wrote: "Few women writers in modern American letters have so sharply and gracefully challenged the patriarchal poetry establishment and cleared the air, and the path, for what is already now several generations of confident women, these often amazing poetic voices. Carolyn Kizer, they will tell you, polished the stones for them to walk on."

Click here to view Carolyn Kizer program notes.

Click here to view audio and video from Carolyn Kizer's presentation at Seattle University on November 1, 2001.

***

Click on picture to see a full-size image of James Merrill.

James Merrill, the son of Merrill Lynch co-founder Charles Merrill and Hellen Ingram, was born March 3, 1926, and died February 6, 1995. His first book of poems, written while he was in prep school, and the famous "Black Swan" were privately published, but his first trade book, First Poems, won great acclaim. In 1956, he used a part of his inheritance to found the Ingram Merrill Foundation, which gives grants to artists and writers. He wrote fiction and a memoir, as well as books of poetry. His poetry awards included the Bollingen Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, National Book Awards, National Book Critics Circle Award, and the first Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry from the Library of Congress. His last book of poems, A Scattering of Salts, was published a month after his death. His poems are notable for their concern with the emotions of relations, especially with parents and lovers. Helen Vendler has written that Merrill's task became "to enfold love's worst moments -- ranging from the minor irritants of quarrels and disappointments to the major scars of betrayal and death -- in a light and gauzy texture, to lift them by sheer style to the essentially comic realm of the seen and seen-through."

Click here to view program notes from "A Celebration of James Merrill," presented by Counterbalance at Town Hall in Seattle on August 23, 2001.