LitCity

Poets Marvin Bell, Rowena Torrevillas, James Galvin, Mark Levine, and Jorie Graham read the work of IWP participants whose work has been published in previous issues of the Iowa Review. Works Read: Marvin Bell reads the following poems: "It Happened There Was a Man Who Wanted to Be a Hunter" by Ai Qing. "Give Indonesia Back to Me" by Taufiq Ismail. "The Exercise" by Fernando Arbelaez. Rowena Torrevillas reads the poem "Indian Summer" by Nicolae Breban. James Galvin reads an excerpt from the short story "Tort's Bitter Marriage" by Amos Tutuola. Mark Levine reads the following poems: "Barbaric Poem" by Guillermo Sánchez. "Wound and Knife" by György Somlyó. "The Biographer" by Ágnes Gergely. "Last Passengers" by Sunil Gangopadhyay. Jorie Graham reads the following poems: "To Have a Friend" by Tomaž Salamun, trans. by Robert Hass. "Souvenir of the Ancient World" by Carlos Drummond de Andrade, trans. by Mark Strand. "A Pity, We Were Such a Good Invention;" "We Did It;" "Rain on a Battlefield;" "Out of Three or Four in a Room" by Yehuda Amichai. "Foreign Domestic;" "A Lovely Finish" by Elizabeth Bishop. David Hamilton reads "Understanding Poetry" by Stuart Friebert.  

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In a reading from 1999, poets Marvin Bell, Rowena Torrevillas, James Galvin, Mark Levine, and Jorie Graham read the work of IWP participants whose work has been published in previous issues of the Iowa Review.

Works Read: Marvin Bell reads the following poems: "It Happened There Was a Man Who Wanted to Be a Hunter" by Ai Qing. "Give Indonesia Back to Me" by Taufiq Ismail. "The Exercise" by Fernando Arbelaez. Rowena Torrevillas reads the poem "Indian Summer" by Nicolae Breban. James Galvin reads an excerpt from the short story "Tort's Bitter Marriage" by Amos Tutuola. Mark Levine reads the following poems: "Barbaric Poem" by Guillermo Sánchez. "Wound and Knife" by György Somlyó. "The Biographer" by Ágnes Gergely. "Last Passengers" by Sunil Gangopadhyay. Jorie Graham reads the following poems: "To Have a Friend" by Tomaž  alamunS, trans. by Robert Hass. "Souvenir of the Ancient World" by Carlos Drummond de Andrade, trans. by Mark Strand. "A Pity, We Were Such a Good Invention;" "We Did It;" "Rain on a Battlefield;" "Out of Three or Four in a Room" by Yehuda Amichai. "Foreign Domestic;" "A Lovely Finish" by Elizabeth Bishop. David Hamilton reads "Understanding Poetry" by Stuart Friebert.

In the video, you can also see poet Lauren Haldeman in the background, as an undergraduate at the University of Iowa, working the soundboard for WSUI / Live from Prairie Lights.

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Home of the International Writing Program, the Shambaugh House hosted Tomaž Šalamun during his time in the residency as well as during his return for the 40th Anniversary of the IWP in 2007.

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Tomaž Šalamun recalls visiting Donnelly's Pub and meeting his future translator, Anselm Hollo, completely by chance:

  Maybe I should start with how Iowa is totally magical for me, and why. I was in Ljubljana. Primož Kožak, a playwright, was here, with the IWP, and then, he was also involved in helping to select the next Slovenian person to come. He very decently offered this position to his younger playwright peer, his competitor. He said “no.” Then to the best young fiction writer, and he said “no.” And when I was asked, I said “Yes, of course.” And it had to be done very quickly. Two days later, Michael Scammell —you might know his name — he was then a lecturer in Ljubljana, then he became responsible for writers in prison for the International PEN […] and he said: “If you go to America, you will for sure meet the Finnish poet Anselm Hollo and like his poetry. Anselm Hollo was in Finland—and Finland was too small for him; he went to Germany, married in Germany, then worked for his uncle who was friends of Jung’s, then came to England, then became an English poet, than BBC wanted to promote him to a much higher position, he didn’t like this … he escaped … and he must be somewhere in America.” I flew to Iowa City (Cedar Rapids), we went to Mayflower, I signed the lease, I went downtown, I went to one bar—I don’t remember its name— and then I went to Donnelly’s, and in Donnelly’s there was an older person and some people around him, and they were laughing and they included me. I realized they were poets, and I said, “I’m a poet, and come from the IWP.” And then the older person said, “Let me drive you to Mayflower.” On the road he had a small accident, and, when he handed his driver’s license to the police officer, I realized that he was Anselm Hollo! That is how Iowa started for me, and it didn’t stop. Every third year there is some strange connection!

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Slovenian poet and Ida Beam Distinguished Visiting Professor Šalamun (IWP '71) answers questions from the audience, October 12, 2007.

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Slovenian poet and Ida Beam Distinguished Visiting Professor Tomaž Šalamun (IWP '71) delivers the Paul Engle Memorial Reading, October 12th, 2007 at Shambaugh Auditorium in the UI Main Library. %CODE_tomaz1%

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