May 13, 2010
Gjertrud Schnackenberg to give annual Roethke reading
Poet Gjertrud Schnackenberg will present the annual Roethke reading, sponsored by the Department of English, at 8 p.m. Wednesday, May 19, in Roethke Auditorium, 130 Kane.
A native of Tacoma, Schnackenberg is the author of five books of poetry: Portraits and Elegies (1982), The Lamplit Answer (1985), A Gilded Lapse of Time (1992), The Throne of Labdacus (2000), and Supernatural Love: Poems, 1978-1992 (2000). Her poetry has appeared in numerous publications.
Writing in the New York Times Book Review, reviewer William Logan described Schnackenberg as “the most talented American poet” of her generation, and praised her for what the critic termed “an enriched and image-soaked language.”
The essayist for Contemporary Women Poets grouped Schnackenberg with the poets of the New Formalism, contemporary poets who favor the traditional modes and subjects of poetry. “Some of the poets associated with the New Formalism,” wrote the essayist, “demand serious attention, not least Gjertrud Schnackenberg, who has used meter and rhyme without subduing emotional currents.”
She is the recipient of the 2000 Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Poetry for The Throne of Labdacus, the 1998 Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the 2004 Berlin Prize from the American Academy in Berlin, the 1984 Rome Prize in Literature from the American Academy in Rome, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Radcliffe Institute, and the Guggenheim Foundation. She has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1996.
The Roethke reading, which is free and open to the public, is named for the late Theodore Roethke, a poet who taught at the UW from 1947 until his death in 1963.
