Poetry Reading by Scott Ezell
Thu 08 Dec 2011, 7.30 pm
Bookworm
From Bookworm:
American / Pacific Rim poet and musician Scott Ezell will read from his books Petroglyph Americana and Songs from a Yahi Bow, as well as from his poem-cycle “Hanoi Rhapsodies,” on December 8 at the Bookworm. In addition to the reading, the event will be open to questions, discussion, and dialogue.
Born in California, Scott has spent over a dozen years in Asia. His poems explore landscapes and identity on both sides of the Pacific, as well as the relationship between cultures, history, and place.
Martin Alexander, poetry editor of the Asia Literary Review, calls “Hanoi Rhapsodies” “a view of Hanoi that is distinctively dystopian and authentically visceral, while retaining a strong humane sensibility.”
About Scott Ezell’s Petroglyph Americana (Empty Bowl Press, 2010):
Petroglyph Americana is one of those volumes that casts a long shadow. Its philosophical components are spot on for our time in this country. Ezell renders his insights with frequent humor, but his language is pure heaven. Whether he is writing of a highway that “unscrolls like an asphalt tongue” or of how “the cowls and towers of a tungsten mine / stand like robot trees or missile silos / against a canvas sky” he orchestrates precision of image with music every time.
—Karen Swenson, author of The Landlady in Bangkok, National Poetry Series winner, 1993.
Reading Scott Ezell’s Petroglyph Americana, I imagine de Tocqueville returning from an Asian exile or Hart Crane rising from the Gulf of Mexico somehow summoning the strength for one more paean to the absurdity of our times and the phantasmagoria of our passage. And yet, the sweetness is overpowering. Another bodhisattva sends back news from the trail.
—Bill Porter (Red Pine), author of Road to Heaven, translator of The Collected Songs of Cold Mountain.
Free entry.
Scott Ezell will also have A Writing Workshop on Sun 11 Dec.
The Bookworm is the best little book cafe in southeast Asia and the coolest place to browse.
 | Bookworm 44 Châu Long, Hà Nội Now open every day 9am – 7pm Tel: +84 (0) 4 37153711 www.bookwormhanoi.com/ [email protected] |
