June 9, 1997

Prominent poet to read at annual meeting of Friends of the UCSC Library

By Barbara McKenna

Poet and UCSC faculty member Peter Gizzi will read from his works during the 31st annual meeting of the Friends of the UCSC Library at 4 p.m. on Thursday, June 12, on the library's north patio. An election of the new members of the Friends Board of Directors will take place prior to the poetry reading. A reception follows and the event is free and open to the public.

Gizzi, an assistant professor of literature at UCSC, is considered to be both an outstanding poet and poetry scholar. In 1994 he received the prestigious Lavan Younger Poets Award, given annually by the American Academy of Poets to a poet aged 40 or younger. He has also twice received the Gertrude Stein Award in Innovative North American Poetry (1993-94 and 1994-95).

Gizzi's works have been published in numerous chapbooks and in two collections--Periplum (1992 ) and Artificial Heart (forthcoming, fall 1997). His book on the collected lectures of Bay Area poet Jack Spicer will be published in spring 1998.

Gizzi is the editor of the Exact Change Yearbook (1995), an international anthology and CD of contemporary literature published simultaneously in Great Britain and the United States. Gizzi is also founder and former editor and publisher of o blek (pronounced "oblique"), an acclaimed poetry journal that was the subject of an international conference held in Paris in 1990.

Along with Gizzi's reading, the Friends board will present an endowment gift to University Librarian Allan Dyson. The Friends Endowment Fund supports the acquisition of books for the library, especially those that celebrate fine printing and the book arts and showcase regional artists. This year's gift, titled The House at Aligarh, is a poem accompanied by seven etchings created by UCSC art lecturer Zarina Hashmi.

For more information, call (408) 459-5870.

Excerpts from reviews of Peter Gizzi's Periplum :

"The beautiful, fragile balance achieved here is simply amazing." -- TO Magazine

"The poetry of Periplum remarkably traces its own outline, revealing, as it goes, the various possibilities of contemporary poetry." -- The Denver Quarterly

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