Novelist Curtis Sittenfeld, Poet Zach Savich

Our exhibition tour guides begin their work touring Telecom Prospect 2007 this weekend. Tours are every Saturday, Sunday and public holiday at 12noon.

AMERICAN WRITERS FROM THE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE OF MODERN LETTERS

Friday 16th February, 12pm and 1:30pm
Join us for free public readings by the two American writers who are teaching at Victoria University’s International Institute of Modern Letters this summer.
12noon: novelist Curtis Sittenfeld
1.30pm: poet Zach Savich

Curtis Sittenfeld (www.curtissittenfeld.com) is the author of the bestselling novels Prep and The Man of My Dreams, which are being translated into 25 languages. Prep was chosen as one of the Ten Best Books of 2005 by The New York Times, nominated for Britain’s Orange Prize, and optioned by Paramount Pictures. Set in an exclusive American boarding school, Prep is an insightful, achingly funny coming-of-age story as well as a brilliant dissection of class, race, and gender that earned its author comparisons with Sylvia Plath (see Turbine 06 for her response to this), Salinger and Fitzgerald. The Man of My Dreams turns its attention to the energy we expend on relationships, in a piercingly honest yet sympathetic portrayal of a young woman's fantasies of family and love as they collide with the challenges and realities of adult life and the fraught world of dating. This session will be chaired by Susan Pearce.

Zach Savich is a rising star on the American poetry scene. His current workshop at the Institute focuses on magic, stupidity, love, and humour, all qualities his own writing explores. He believes reading a poem should be at least as interesting as taking a walk, and is interested in poetry ‘that one can read when sick of books’. Goofiness, indirection and sleight of hand are all strategies he favours in order to arrive at a result that, in his words, resembles ‘a solar eclipse caught in a shoebox diorama’.” Savich’s work has been widely published in respected United States literary journals, and he is the recipient of numerous honours and fellowships. He plans to include a visual element in his session, which is chaired by US poet and 2006 MA workshop convenor Dora Malech.

Savich interviewed on RNZ here: down the bottom of this link (http://www.radionz.co.nz/nr/programmes/artsonsunday)

Admission is free. Both writers have work online in Turbine 06 (www.vuw.ac.nz/turbine).

Presented by the International Institute of Modern Letters in partnership with City Gallery Wellington.

ENDS

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