Salem State poetry seminar from June 5-8

The Salem Poetry Seminar, sponsored by the Salem State Center for Creative and Performing Arts, is a free, week-long seminar, offering students at the Commonwealth's public institutions of higher education the opportunity to study poetry intensively with accomplished teachers and writers. The seminar, to be held June 5-8, will bring 12 young poets together to study, with a "master class" held by acclaimed poet Afaa Michael Weaver. Seminar poetry readings are free and open to the public. This year's reading schedule is as follows:

• Tuesday, June 5, 7:30 p.m.
  Salem Theatre Company, 90 Lafayette Street
  Featured Readers: Kevin Carey, Charlotte Gordon
  Student Poets: Steven Durta, Rebecca Mueller, Jacob Reecher, Kayla Russell
• Wednesday, June 6, 7:30 p.m.
  Salem Athenaeum, 337 Essex Street
  Featured Readers: J.D. Scrimgeour, Claire Keyes
  Student Poets: Felicia Connolly, Lillian Donnelly, Emily Hatch, William Regan
• Thursday, June 7, 7:30 p.m.
  Salem Athenaeum, 337 Essex Street
  Salem Poetry Seminar Alumni Reading and Open Mic
• Friday, June 8, 7:30 p.m.
  Salem Athenaeum, 337 Essex Street
  Featured Reader: Afaa Michael Weaver
  Student Poets: Sara Afshar, Ashley De Souza, JD Debski, Lyndon Seitz 

For more information, please contact:
J.D. Scrimgeour, Program Director, jscrimgeour@salemstate.edu, (978) 587-7082
January O'Neil, Project Manager, joneil@salemstate.edu, (978) 239-2598
Karen Gahagan, Salem State Center for the Arts, kgahagan@salemstate.edu, (978) 542-7890

Ex-pat seminar blurb in The Globe

From Jan Gardner's 8/7/11 "Word on the Street" post for the Globe:

Transported by books

Edith Wharton’s “In Morocco,’’ about her journey just after World War I, is a classic of travel literature. Henry James in “Italian Hours’’ wrote about his enchantment with the country that became the setting for some of his best-known novels. And the music composed by Paul Bowles was deeply influenced by his visits to exotic locales.

Travel transformed the 19th- and 20th-century American expatriates whose writings are being explored in a series of seminars under way at Boston University’s Mugar Library, 771 Commonwealth Ave. These are bargain armchair adventures. The Boston Poetry Union is charging $5 for each two-hour class taught by Christopher M. Ohge, a doctoral candidate at BU. No prior knowledge is assumed, and no preparation is expected, although reading packets are available for each session.

This is the third summer the union has held a seminar series, according to organizer Zachary Bos. Registrants include an astronomer, a bartender, and a psychotherapist as well as graduate students in literature.

At each session, Ohge will talk about the themes of that evening’s texts before leading a group discussion focused on a close reading of them. Each seminar stands on its own.

Literary Seminar: American Expat Literature

This is now the third summer in which the Boston Poetry Union has organized a Seminar in Literary Appreciation. This year, Christopher Ohge will guiding participants through a tour of "AMERICAN EXPATRIATE WRITING IN THE 19th & 20th CENTURY".

These reading seminars are intended to acquaint participants with major personalities and events in the broad body of American literature written by Americans abroad. No prior experience is assumed or needed, and no preparation is required to attend.

These are relaxed and informative affairs, where the aim is for all involved to grow in their appreciation of literature. The moderator will provide reading packets for each session, in hard copy at the seminar and in PDF in advance. At each session, the moderator will deliver a brief expository lecture introducing the themes and relevance of that evening's texts, before leading group discussion focused on close reading.

Thursdays 6-8 PM
Boston University's Mugar Library
771 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 414
"BU Central" stop on the Green Line "B" trolley

Seminar 1: July 28th
- Ralph Waldo Emerson: "The Sphinx"; "Persian Poetry"; and selections from Journals while abroad in Italy
- Nathaniel Hawthorne: "P's Correspondence"

Seminar 2: August 4th
Herman Melville: selections from Typee; "Paradise of Bachelors and the Tartarus of Maids"; and Journal of a Visit to Europe and the Levant

Seminar 3: August 11th
Henry James: selections from Italian Hours
Edith Wharton: selections from In Morocco

Seminar 4: August 18th
Gertude Stein: "Ada" and "Guillaume Apollinaire"
T. S. Eliot: "Fourth Caprice in Montparnasse" and Four Quartets

Seminar 5: August 25th
Paul Bowles: selected letters from France, 1929-1932; "A Distant Episode"; "Allal"; and "Baptism of Solitude"

Participants may attend any or all sessions; the seminar is not cumulative.

If you'd like to register, please email your name to bostonpoetryunion@gmail.com as well as your contact information and the dates you plan to attend. A maximum of 12 students can be seated at each session. The cost to attend each session is $5, or $25 for the whole seminar series. Payment may be made at the first seminar with cash, by check to "Boston Poetry Union," or via PayPal to bostonpoetryunion@gmail.com.