Russell J. Archives - Page 5 of 12 - Evanston Public Library

An Interview with Sarah Hahne

September 22, 2013

Sarah Hahne is a local printmaker, painter, and the latest artist to be featured in our ongoing exhibition series Local Art @ EPL. Her show – titled A New Practice – is currently on display on the 2nd floor of EPL’s Main Library and reuses carpet tread, plastic, and even window screens to create quilt-like works that explore our “conflicted relationship… with our environment and the resulting disconnect with our core selves.” You can catch A New Practice through the end of September, and after that, you can learn more about Ms. Hahne’s work by visiting her website. We recently spoke with Ms. Hahne via email about her “first language,” her creative process, Woman Made Gallery, and public art.

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Poetry 365

August 29, 2013

This month for Poetry 365 we’re highlighting the fantastic fifth book from celebrated poet Maurice Manning. In The Gone and the Going Away, the Pulitzer Prize finalist mines his own rural Kentucky roots while creating the folks of Fog Town Holler – a mythical, bygone land that “celebrates and echoes the voices and lives of his beloved hill people.” Southern, earthy, and uniquely timeless, this 52 poem collection leaves little wonder why W.S. Merwin proclaimed Manning a “fresh and brilliant talent.” So check out this vivid new volume, sample a poem below, and make sure to stop back next month for Poetry 365.

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An Interview with Vincent Brent

August 15, 2013

brent2 Vincent Brent is a local painter who was recently featured in our ongoing exhibition series Local Art @ EPL. His latest collection was on display at EPL’s Main Library throughout July and represented a departure from his typical vibrant colors as he experimented with black and white oils. If you missed his show, however, don’t fret. You can view more of Mr. Brent’s work by visiting his website, and he recently spoke with us via email about his artistic awakening following a kite flying contest, his creative process, and art’s unique power to heal.

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Poetry 365

June 14, 2013

This month for Poetry 365 we’re featuring the profound eighth book from influential poet Frank Bidart. In Metaphysical Dog, the Wallace Stevens Award winner focuses his “spiky free verse” on poignant explorations of “the war between the mind and body, ecstasy and obliteration, his mother’s death, and his coming out.” Unconventional, emotional, and intellectually rewarding, this 39 poem collection shows why Louise Gluck named Bidart “one of the great poems of our time.” So check out this bold new volume, sample a poem below, and make sure to stop back next month for Poetry 365.

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Poetry 365

May 23, 2013

Another National Poetry Month has come and gone but that doesn’t mean the fun is over. Breathe easy, poetry friends, because here on Off the Shelf we like to celebrate year round with Poetry 365, a monthly-minus-April feature that highlights a contemporary poet’s most recent work. This month we pick back up with Bob Hicok’s absorbing new book Elegy Owed. A fluid, funny, and darkly irreverent exploration of mortality and mourning, this eighth collection from the National Book Critics Circle Award finalist offers offbeat variations on the elegy that “jut out in wild, associative directions, yet find their way back to the root of the matter, often in sincere and heartbreaking ways.” So while you reminisce about another National Poetry Month, check out this excellent new collection, sample a poem below, and make sure to stop back next month for Poetry 365.

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Poetry 365

March 22, 2013

This month for Poetry 365 we’re highlighting Jessica Greenbaum’s eloquent new volume The Two Yvonnes. Chosen for Paul Muldoon’s series of Princeton Contemporary Poets, the upstreet editor’s second collection employs prose-like free verse, sonnets, and a single pantoun in explorations of the urban everyday akin to Elizabeth Bishop and W.G. Sebald. Organic and unhurried, these 42 poems showcase what PW called Greenbaum’s “great intelligence, skill with abstraction, humor, and talent for endings” while raising her writing “far above the mundane.” So check out this excellent new collection, sample a poem below, and clear your calendar… our National Poetry Month celebration is about to begin.

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Poetry 365

February 28, 2013

This month for Poetry 365 we’re featuring Marcus Wicker’s stellar new book Maybe the Saddest Thing. Winner of the 2011 National Poetry Series Prize as selected by D.A. Powell, Wicker’s outstanding debut mixes meditations on memory, family, race, and desire with complicated love letters to African-American icons such as Pam Grier, Flavor Flav, and Dave Chappelle. Fearless, vibrant, and hip, these 38, excitingly varied poems have been favorably compared to the work of Terrance Hayes who praised the collection for “showing us what it is to be in vigilant conversation with the world and with the self.” So check out this wonderful new book, sample a poem below, and make sure to stop back next month for Poetry 365.

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Poetry 365

January 31, 2013

This month for Poetry 365 we’re highlighting the extraordinary new novel-in-poems from Kathleen Rooney. In Robinson Alone, the Rose Metal Press founding editor examines and expands upon the work of mysterious 1940’s poet Weldon Kees by reanimating his haunting literary alter ego Robinson. Epic, atmospheric, and akin to historical fiction, this cinematic collection traces Robinson’s cross country journey from hope to despair in what Booklist called “an intricate… tale of American loneliness and enthralling testament to poetry’s resonance.” So don’t miss this Chicagoan’s brilliant new book, sample a poem below, and make sure to stop back next month for Poetry 365.

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An Interview with Michael Berns

January 28, 2013

mikeincap2 Michael Berns is a local photographer, architect, and the latest artist to be featured in our ongoing exhibition series Local Art @ EPL. His show – titled From Within – From Without – is currently on display on the 2nd floor of EPL’s Main Branch where you can catch it through Wednesday, January 30th. Inspired by Henri Cartier-Bresson’s “decisive moment,” the collection presents twenty-four striking black and white images captured everywhere from the Washington D.C. subway to the Texas rodeo circuit. We recently spoke with Mr. Berns via email about his creative inspirations, photography as poetry, and art as a growth process.

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An Interview with Dr. Thomas Simpson

January 26, 2013

Dr. Thomas Simpson is a Distinguished Senior Lecturer in Italian at Northwestern University and the author of the recent book Murder and Media in the New Rome: The Fadda Affair. Meticulously researched in the libraries and archives of Italy, his book offers a fascinating exploration of “a sensational crime and trial that took place in Rome in the late 1870’s, when the bloody killing of a war hero triggered a national spectacle.” On Thursday, January 31st at 7 p.m., you can hear Dr. Simpson discuss and read from Murder and Media in the New Rome when he visits EPL’s 1st Floor Community Meeting Room as part of the Evanston Northwestern Humanities Lecture Series. In anticipation of his visit, we recently spoke with him via email about how the Fadda Affair fits into the whole of Italian history, how newspapers helped enflame the scandal, the role of Roman women in the spectacle, and the best novels about the “Risorgimento” period.

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