'How to Read a Poem' author at Davidson College

Edward Hirsch, award-winning poet, literary critic, MacArthur Fellow and president of the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, will lecture on "Reading Poetry, Poetry Reading," at 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 13, in Davidson College's Duke Family Performance Hall.

Hirsch's presentation will focus on the nature of reading poetry -- how it works and the intimacy it establishes through language. These are ideas he discusses in his 2000 book, "How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry."

Davidson English Department Chairman Zoran Kuzmanovich, who uses the book whenever he teaches poetry, says it's always a hit with students.
Hirsch believes poetry "is not just of the mind, but of the body," Kuzmanovich says. "The words the poetry delivers make you feel what this person may have felt."

And Hirsch is skilled, Kuzmanovich says, at explaining "why a poem makes you feel the way it makes you feel."

The lecture is free, but tickets are required. To reserve tickets, call the college box office, 704-894-2135. They'll be available for pick up before the event at a table outside the Duke Family Performance Hall. They can also be picked up between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. in the Knobloch Campus Center box office.