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Two Streams of Poetry in the Vietnamese Tradition
"Two Streams of Poetry in the Vietnamese Tradition" with acclaimed Author and Professor Emeritus, John Balaban.
Thursday, September 8 at 11:00am ET (attend in person or online)
$20 to attend in-person lecture (per person)
+$20 - Reception add-on (per person who attend in-person lecture and reception)
*First 30 Registered will receive a free copy of John Balaban's book, "Empires"
Two great streams flow within the long history of Vietnamese poetry, two tributaries or aquifers that nourish its culture and, sometimes, its politics. The older, native poetry called ca dao is more than a thousand years old. It is an oral poetic tradition and is sung but not written. The written, literary poetry flowing from China is written in Chinese, or Han-Nom, or chu nom, particularly in the Tang lu shi (regulated verse) form, known in Vietnam as thơ duong luat. Mr. Balaban's talk will describe how these two kinds of poetry, sometimes flowing together, have influenced Vietnamese culture.
John Balaban is the author of thirteen books of poetry and prose, including four volumes which together have won The Academy of American Poets' Lamont prize, a National Poetry Series Selection, and two nominations for the National Book Award, After Our War (1974) and Locusts at the Edge of Summer (1998). His Locusts at the Edge of Summer: New and Selected Poems won the 1998 William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America. He was named the 2001-2004 National Artist for the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society. In 2003, he was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship. In 2008, he was awarded a medal from the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture for his work in translation and digital preservation of ancient texts. In 2017, he received the George Garrett Award for Outstanding Community Service in Literature from the Associated Writing Programs. His new book of poetry, Empires, came out from Copper Canyon Press in 2019.
In addition to writing poetry, fiction, and nonfiction, he is a translator of Vietnamese poetry, and a past president of the American Literary Translators Association. He is a founder and director of the Vietnamese Nom Preservation Foundation.
Prices:
Lecture (ONLY) Ticket: USD 20.00,
Special Reception (ADD ON) - SELECT TO ATTEND: USD 22.85
