As usual, Buffalo’s Winter/Spring literary calendar brims with a diverse array of readings, talks, conferences, and workshops. Highlights of the season include readings by major poets Paul Muldoon and Lyn Hejinian, and fiction writers Samuel R. Delaney and R.M. Berry.

Paul Muldoon (pictured above)

Poetry Reading

Thursday, March 2, 8pm

Grupp Fireside Lounge, Canisius College

The Times Literary Supplement has called Paul Muldoon “the most significant English-language poet born since the Second World War.” A native of Northern Ireland, Muldoon is the author of nine books of poetry, including Poems 1968-1998 (2001) and Moy Sand and Gravel, which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2003. His honors include an American Academy of Arts and Letters award in literature, the 1994 T. S. Eliot Prize, the 1997 Irish Times Poetry Prize, the 2003 Griffin International Prize for Excellence in Poetry, the 2004 American Ireland Fund Literary Award, and the 2004 Shakespeare Prize. In 1999 he was elected to the five-year term of Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford. He is currently Howard G.B. Clark ’21 Professor in the Humanities at Princeton University, where he directs the creative writing program.

R.M. Berry

Fiction Reading

Wednesday, March 22, 7pm

Medaille College, The Library at Huber Hall

R.M. Berry is author of the novel Leonardo’s Horse, a New York Times “notable book” of 1998, and the story collections Plane Geometry and Other Affairs of the Heart, and Dictionary of Modern Anguish. His short fiction has been widely published and anthologized and his critical essays have appeared in such journals as Philosophy and Literature and Narrative. He is currently professor of English at Florida State University, and is also publisher of the independent press Fiction Collective2 (FC2).

Samuel R. Delaney

Reading

Friday, March 24, 7pm

Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center (Delaware and Tupper Streets)

Samuel R. Delany is the winner of multiple Hugo and Nebula awards and one of science fiction’s most celebrated authors. His 1966 novel Babel-17 established his reputation, and over the next decade he became famous for his provocative futuristic explorations of race and sexual identity in the novels Nova (1969), Dhalgren (1975) and Triton (1976) among many other novels, stories, and non-fiction works. Presented as part of Samuel R. Delany: A Critical Symposium conference, March 23-24 at SUNY Buffalo.

Lyn Hejinian (pictured above)

Poetry Reading

Friday, April 14, 8pm

Albright-Knox Art Gallery

Co-Sponsored by The David Gray Chair of Poetry and Letters at SUNY at Buffalo and Gusto at the Gallery

Lyn Hejinian is a poet, essayist, and translator; she was born in the San Francisco Bay Area and lives in Berkeley. Published collections of her writing include Writing is An Aid to Memory, My Life, Oxota: A Short Russian Novel, Leningrad (written in collaboration with Michael Davidson, Ron Silliman, and Barrett Watten), The Cell, The Cold of Poetry, and A Border Comedy; the University of California Press published a collection of her essays titled The Language of Inquiry. Translations of her work have been published in France, Spain, Japan, Italy, Russia, Sweden, and Finland. In the fall of 2000, she was elected the sixty-sixth Fellow of the Academy of American Poets. She teaches at the University of California, Berkeley.

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Here’s a month by month preview of everything happening. For detailed event info on all of these readings, visit www.justbuffalo.org or www.literarybuffalo.org.

January

Because of school holidays, the literary season really doesn’t get going until February, but there are a few events worth noting this month. On Jan. 20, Just Buffalo’s Joyce Carolyn presents Angles, Lines, Circles in Time at the Langston Hughes Institute, and Kenn Morgan’s one-man exhibition, A Study of Architecture, will be joined with poetry for a multi-disciplinary performance featuring spoken word artists Robert Djed Snead, Lonnie B. Harrell, Howard F. Smith, James J. Cooper, N’Tare Ali Gault, and Gary Earl Ross.

The Saloon Conversation Series continues Friday, Jan. 27 at Rust Belt Books with Borderblur: A Panel Discussion on the “State” of Canadian Poetry, to be followed by a poetry reading to celebrate the new anthology Shift and Switch: New Canadian Poetry with Geoffrey Hlibchuk, Trevor Speller, Gregory Betts, Rob Read, Mark Truscott, and Angela Rawlings. Just Buffalo’s Orbital Series kicks off with Communiqué: Flash Fiction, featuring Detroit fiction writer Kim Chinquee and Buffalo’s own Ed Taylor, and the January open readings feature Russ Golata, Celia White, Christina Wos-Donnelly.

February

The Nickel City Poetry Slam, a joint production of Gusto at the Gallery and Just Buffalo, and hosted by the fabulous Gabrielle Bouliane, continues on Feb. 3 at the Albright-Knox. Blair, an HBO Def Jam poet from Detroit, will headline. On Feb. 4, Just Buffalo presents “Along This Way: Storytelling in the African Tradition” at the Buffalo and Erie County Central Library. Canisius College brings the year’s third installment of the Contemporary Writers Series, presenting fiction writer Brock Clarke on Thursday, Feb. 9. On Thursday, Feb. 16 at Big Orbit Gallery, Just Buffalo brings to town three young writers who are also editors of Brooklyn’s Ugly Duckling Press: Genya Turovskaya, Matvei Yankelevich, Anna Moschovakis. Just Buffalo will also present a sort of companion event to Borderblur (see above) on Thursday, Feb. 23 called Toronto Invasion, which will feature several of the poets discussed at the January event, including Rob Read, Kemeny Babineau and John Barlow.

New arrivals to the Buffalo State English faculty, Bethe Kelley and Peter Ramos, will read from their poems at The Burchfield-Penney Art Center on Sunday, Feb. 26, at 2pm. At 4pm on the same day, Rust Belt Books and Medaille College present a birthday reading in honor of French novelist Michel Houellebecq. Just Buffalo’s Open Readings in February will feature local writers, Martha Deed, Dave Lewitzky and Dan Sicoli.

March

March comes in like a lion with a poetry reading by Irish literary heavyweight, Paul Muldoon (see above). Muldoon will read as part of Canisius’ Contemporary Writers Series on March 2. Just Buffalo’s Forrest Roth presents Part Two of the Communiqué: Flash Fiction series with Connecticut fiction writer and poet James Grinwis. Sunday, March 5, the Burchfield Penney Art Center presents poet Emily Grosholz. Medaille College continues its The Write Thing Reading Series on Wednesday, March 22, with a reading by Fiction Collective editor and experimental fiction writer R.M. Berry. Just Buffalo presents Spotlight on Youth Open Mic/Coffee House on Wednesday, March 22 at the Planned parenthood Meeting Room at 2697 Main St.

Exhibit X Fiction and SUNY at Buffalo present a conference on Sci-Fi great and former UB Professor Samuel R Delaney on March 23 and 24. Delaney himself will read on the 24th, as will novelist Lance Olsen on the 23rd. On March 29 at 2pm, the Burchfield-Penney Art Center presents a poetry part in honor of retiring English Professor, David Lampe.

Just Buffalo finishes out the month with another installment of the Orbital Series, guest-hosted by Kevin Thurston and featuring young Baltimore/DC talents Lauren Bender and Justin Sirois. Just Buffalo’s open readings take place on March 8 at the Carnegie Art Center in Tonawanda, March 16 at The Book Corner in Niagara Falls, and on March 19 at Rust Belt Books in Allentown.

April

April is not the cruelest month, unless you are T.S. Eliot, in which case you are dead. On April 4-5, The Kick Ass Poets (Alexis DeVeaux, Gail Jackson and Suheir Hamad) will be in town to perform at Buffalo State College and other venues TBA. April 6 ushers in the return of the annual Buffalo Williamsville Poetry Music and Dance Celebration at Kleinhans Music Hall, featuring poet Eamon Grennan and student writers, musicians and dancers. Also on April 6, novelist Sandra Benitez reads in Canisius Contemporary Writers Series in the Marie Maday Theatre at Canisius College. The Write Thing Reading Series continues at Medaille with a reading by fiction writers Stacey Levine and Ted Pelton on Thursday, April 13.

Just Buffalo, Gusto at the Gallery, and The David Gray Chair of Poetry and Letters at SUNY Buffalo present an Evening with Lyn Hejinian on Friday, April 14 at 8pm (see previous page). Just Buffalo’s Orbital Series continues with another event curated by Kevin Thurston, featuring DC/Philadelphia poets Buck Down and CA Conrad. On April 21-22 there will be a conference devoted to the work of poet Robert Duncan at UB.

On April 27, Just Buffalo presents African American Poet and Playwright Patricia Spears Jones from New York City. The last guest in Just Buffalo’s Communiqué: Flash Fiction series will be fiction writer and Oprah magazine executive editor, Dawn Raffel. Just Buffalo’s Open Readings take place on April 5 at the Carnegie Art Center in Tonawanda, April 20 at The Book Corner in Niagara Falls, and on April 16 at Rust Belt Books in Allentown.

May

During the entire month of May, Just Buffalo will present The Big Read, a month-long celebration of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. A free reader’s guide will be available soon. On May 4, The Write Thing Reading Series at Medaille College concludes with a reading by Tod Thilleman and Geoffrey Gatza. And the Buffalo literary season will itself conclude with a special 80th birthday tribute to the late Robert Creeley on May 21.