An Evening Honoring California's Poet Robinson Jeffers
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct. 30, 2006
Kathleen McPartland
530-898-4260
An Evening Honoring California's Poet Robinson Jeffers
The Writer's Voice Series, California State University, Chico, in cooperation with 1078 Gallery, is presenting "Robinson Jeffers, a Poet for Our Time" this Thursday, Nov. 2, 7:30 p.m. at the gallery at 820 Main. Jim Karman, George Keithley, Jim Dwyer and Beth Spencer will present the program.
Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962) was a poet and stonemason who lived and worked in the Big Sur-Carmel-Monterey region of California, an area now identified as "Jeffers country," according to Karman, a Jeffers scholar.
"In a career that lasted over 40 years," said Karman, "Jeffers published 15 major books of poetry and built a landmark house and tower out of stone. A pacifist, naturalist and religious visionary, Jeffers offered a sustained critique of modern life, which both angered and inspired his contemporaries. He is widely credited with reviving, indirectly, the environmental movement in America and with providing the intellectual, spiritual and artistic foundation for Deep Ecology."
Professor Karman is professor emeritus, Department of English and Department of Religious Studies, and the former coordinator of the Humanities Program. He is the author of "Robinson Jeffers: Poet of California" (Story Line Press) and the editor of "Critical Essays on Robinson Jeffers" (G.K. Hall), "Of Una Jeffers" by Edith Greenan (Story Line Press), and "Stones of the Sur: Poetry by Robinson Jeffers/Photographs by Morley Baer" (Stanford University Press). His current editorial project is "The Collected Letters of Robinson Jeffers with Selected Letters of Una Jeffers" (Stanford University Press).
George Keithley is professor emeritus, Department of English, and the author of several collections of poetry, including "The Donner Party" (George Braziller), Earth's Eye" (Story Line Press) and "The Starry Messenger (University of Pittsburgh Press).
Jim Dwyer is the bibliographic services librarian at CSU, Chico. He is also the author of a reference book, "Earth Works: Recommended Fiction and Nonfiction About Nature and the Environment." His chapbook, "The Sun, the Stars, the Moondog," was published in 1999. He is currently writing a third book, "Where the Wild Books Are: A Field Guide to Ecofiction," and another poetry chapbook.
Beth Spencer is the founder of Bear Star Press (Cohasset, California). She teaches in the literary editing and publishing program at CSU, Chico.
Karman will read from his book, "Stones of the Sur," and selected Jeffers poems. Keithley, Dwyer and Spencer will read selected Jeffers poems and some of their own poems.
Jeffers' family has given permission for the printing of a limited edition broadside of his poem, "The Answer," which will be available for purchase at the reading.
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