Literature Events Audio

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UC Berkeley special events, interviews, and lectures featuring distinguished faculty and guests. To view these events as webcasts visit webcast.berkeley.edu. Full course lectures available, too.

Li-Young Lee

Li-Young Lee's collections of poems include The City in Which I Love You and Book of My Nights. In his poetry he explores a range of subjects, from his family's immigrant experiences to the haunting meditations of his most recent work.

"His poems are made from his life with his life; his poems are earned. He dares to be simple. And he is surely among the finest young poets alive," writes the American Poetry Review. He lives in Illinois.

Mary Ruefle

Mary Ruefle extends the territory of literature into realms that only poetry can reach, never losing touch with her amazing sense of humor. Her seven books of poetry include her recent Among the Musk Ox People. She lives in Massachusetts and is making her first trip to California in 20 years.

Luis Rodriguez

Luis Rodriguez has published eight books of poetry, memoir, and children's literature. His poetry, including Trochemoche, has won a Poetry Center Book Award, a PEN Josephine Miles Literary Award, and Foreword magazine's Silver Book Award. He is also widely known for his memoir of gang life, Always Running: La Vida Loca, Gang Days in L.A., and for founding and directing Tia Chucha Press.

Cornelius Eady

Cornelius Eady's poetry meets the world's absurdities head-on with his own deft paradoxes. His highly personal use of language never detracts from its hard-hitting content. Eady's seven books of poetry include The Autobiography of a Jukebox, and his latest, Brutal Imagination. He's won the Academy of American Poets' Lamont Prize and teaches creative writing at CCNY.

Al Young

California Poet Laureate Al Young has created a profound and enduring body of work that represents our time. Young's numerous publications in poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and for the stage and screen explore the American, human…