Great Works Discussion at Baruch College

Tomorrow at Baruch, poet laureate Charles Simic, along with writers Antonio Munoz Molina, Fatou Diome, and Ma Jian, will be discussing works from Baruch College’s ‘Great Works’ courses. According to the PEN website, each writer ‘selected a classic work from those being studied in Baruch’s Great Works program and will discuss its resonance within his or her own life and work.’ It sounds like it will be a very interesting program; it’s also free and open to the public. It will be held in room 5-150 in the Vertical Campus at 2:30 tomorrow, May 1. It’s part of the PEN World Voices series taking place all over the city this week. Visit the website for more information and a complete schedule of events.

Charles Simic at Baruch College

U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Simic spoke here at Baruch last Tuesday, March 18. He’s teaching here this spring as part of the Harman Writer in Residence Program, which brings a different writer to Baruch each semester. He read from a number of poems written over the course of his career. The reading was alternately poignant and bitterly funny. One memorable poem was ‘Serving Time,’ excerpted here:

‘Here on death row, I read a lot of books.

First it was law, as you’d expect.

Then came history, ancient and modern.

Finally philosophy–all that being and nothingness stuff.

The more I read, the less I understand.

Still, other inmates call me professor.’

(Simic, Charles. Sixty Poems, p88; originally appeared in The Voice at 3AM, 2003).

Simic’s sense of humor shone through during his reading, even when he was discussing serious events and issues. Originally from Belgrade, Yugoslavia, he lived through World War II and the occupation of that country by the Nazis. To find out more about Simic and his work, and to hear more of his readings, you can visit his website at the Library of Congress.

You can watch the entire video of the Baruch event by clicking this link.