The first month of the New Year is winding to a sleepy-eyed close; most folks have long since shook the Holiday hangover and found solace in the quiet lull following a freshly-minted year. But let us not grow bland as we settle into a comfortable grind! After a healthy Holiday hibernation, Sarabande Books’ 21c Reading Series is bright-eyed, bushy-tailed and ready to spice up your Monday nights once more. The 2012 series premiere starts tonight at 7:30pm, and poets H.L. Hix and Kate Northrop will kick off the season – a perfect cocktail of free poetry, music and contemporary art.
Held annually on the last Monday of the month (excepting November and December), the 21c Reading Series features acclaimed poets from all over the country in the quirky and award-winning digs of Louisville’s 21c Museum Hotel. Our gracious host, Sarabande Books, presents the series as part of their numerous outreach programs designed to keep you both cultured and literate. The musical stylings of Maiden Radio will accompany tonight’s headliners, H.L. Hix and Kate Northrop.
The author of numerous books of poetry, poetic criticism and theory, H.L. Hix’s most recent collections include First Fire, Then Birds: Obsessionals 1985-2010 and Chromatic – a finalist for the National Book Award. A myriad of Hix’s poetry, essays and other literay pursuits have been published in the pages of McSweeney’s, Georgia Review, Harvard Review, Boston Review and Poetry. He currently teaches Creative Writing in the MFA program at the University of Wyoming.
Hix’s co-star – and life partner, for that matter – for the evening, is fellow poet and professor, Kate Northrop. Also presently teaching with the MFA program at the University of Wyoming, Northrop earned her own MFA from the University of Iowa. Her most recent poetry collection, Clean, follows the success of preceding volumes, Back Through Interruption and Things Are Disappearing Here. She is also the author of two acclaimed chapbooks, Evening and Through Which Footsteps.
Poetry shoes still fit? Good. Shine them up, slip them on and head out tonight for a drink, some tunes and your first free and scrumptious dose of culture for the year. Welcome back!
21c Museum Hotel is located on the corner of 7th Street and Main Street – let the Red Penguins be your guide.
Photo: Courtesy of Sarabande Books website www.sarabandebooks.org
