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The four poets coming to Seattle in the next few months boast most impressive résumés: poet laureate of the United States, two Pulitzer Prizes, two MacArthur Foundation "genius grants," finalist for the National Book Award, plus a major international prize for work on behalf of peace and social change.
The eighth season of the poetry series of Seattle Arts & Lectures shows no sign of losing momentum when its headliners are Mark Strand, Kevin Young, Carolyn Forche and Charles Simic.
"I think it's a very strong lineup," says Margit Rankin, the executive director of Seattle Arts & Lectures, "that is going to provide myriad delights, insights and different ways of engaging with language."
Rankin adds that early ticket sales are "very strong," another indicator that the group's poetry series at Intiman Playhouse has settled in as a fixture on the city's midwinter literary calendar.
The series lineup opens with Strand on Feb. 27. The native of Canada's Prince Edward Island, now a resident of New York City, was the U.S. poet laureate in 1990 and his honors include a MacArthur and a Pulitzer.
Strand has written 12 collections, many reflecting his peripatetic youth. His latest collection was "Man and Camel" in 2006.
Young follows on March 13. His last name is indeed apropos for the series since he is the youngest of the four featured poets, but already making a considerable name in his first decade as a published poet.
His 2003 collection titled "Jelly Roll" was a finalist for the National Book Award, while his 2005 collection, "Black Maria," was a film noir rendered in verse. He has just published his latest titled "For the Confederate Dead."
Young teaches at Emory University in Atlanta and lives in Boston.
Forche speaks on March 26, a particularly relevant poet in a time of so much conflict around the globe. She has written four collections of poetry (including "The Country Between Us") and edited a collection in 1993 that reflects her activist perspective -- "Against Forgetting: Twentieth-Century Poetry of Witness," which includes work by poets around the globe who "endured conditions of extremity."
Forche received the Edita and Ira Morris Hiroshima Award for Peace and Culture. She teaches at Skidmore College in New York and lives in Maryland.
Simic concludes the series on April 10. The native of Yugoslavia grew up amid conflict in Belgrade before escaping to the United States in 1952. He has written 16 collections, including "My Noiseless Entourage" in 2005, and is a prolific author of essays, translation and memoir.
Simic's honors include a Pulitzer and a MacArthur. He teaches at the University of New Hampshire.
All events are at 7:30 p.m.
Series tickets ($60, $120) are on sale through Seattle Arts & Lectures at 206-621-2230 or lectures.org. Tickets to individual poets, if available, will be sold starting Feb. 1.
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