Professors read poetry, prose to spur creativity

With more than 100 seats filled last night, the creative writing faculty had an auditorium of students listening to stories of childhood memories and dreams.

Reading excerpts from several published works, professors from the creative writing program held their annual faculty poetry reading last night in the School of Management auditorium.

"I think it was one of our most successful readings," said creative writing program director Leslie Epstein. "I have never heard the [audience] so attentive. People really were responding."

The entire creative writing faculty -- David Ferry, Jennifer Haigh, Ha Jin, Louise Glück and Robert Pinsky -- read poetry and novel excerpts from several works, including their own.

Pinsky, a former Poet Laureate, read two of his poems, "Keyboard" and "The Green Piano," which he said refers to a piano he loved when he was a child. He also read "Paradiso 33," a selection from his The Inferno of Dante, a translation of Dante's Inferno.

Glück, whom Epstein introduced as "America's greatest poet," was the last to take the stage, reading three of her poems, including "Twilight" and "Walking at Night." She told the audience she promised to be prompt.

"I really don't like readings," the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet told The Daily Free Press after the event. "I would rather see something on a page. But I think students enjoy it, but it takes a lot of concentration. It's a lot to ask from an audience."

After the event, Glück said her students and contemporaries inspire her to continue writing.

Epstein, the event's host, was greeted by audience laughter when he opened the evening with references to current political events.

"I can announce that the State of the Union is strong," he said.

Epstein's entrance set the mood for the reading, which combined serious poetry and prose by contemporary writers and poets with dark humor between readings.

"We got some of the top writers in the country, and indeed the world, teaching here at BU," said event coordinator Matt Yost.

Ferry, who recited the ancient opera of Eurydice and two of his poems, "Lake Water" and "Resemblance," connected the ancient epic to his two modern poems.

"Tonight, my favorite poet was David Ferry," Epstein said after the event. "[The poems] were beautiful, and the connection between the antique poem and the modern [had] a sense of lost."

Jin, author of the novel Waiting, read excerpts from a short story. Haigh read an excerpt from her unpublished novel-in-progress The Condition.

"I attended last year's reading, and it was really good," said College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Kristal Hang. "I really liked this one, too."

College of Communication sophomore Sarah Ip said her interest in Jin's books made the event particularly meaningful.

"I like his way of expressing himself, and the usage of language makes me feel close to the characters," she said.