Smith College Admission Academics Student Life About Smith news Offices
News Release
 

October 8, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Poet Aleida Rodríguez to Read at Smith

Editor’s note: For a photo of Aleida Rodríguez, e-mail Marti Hobbes.

NORTHAMPTON, Mass.—Smith College will present a reading by poet Aleida Rodríguez at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 23, in Stoddard Hall Auditorium. The event is free, open to the public and wheelchair accessible.

Rodríguez, who immigrated to America from Cuba at age 9, writes poems that resonate with exile, escape and questions of impossible return. Still, the poet rails against those who would pigeonhole her as “only” a writer of displacement and political strife, and asks readers, “Who says that whining or raging is more legitimate than delighting or loving?”

Rodríguez’ debut collection, “Garden of Exile,” has been praised for its broad scope, and poet Marie Ponsot calls Rodríguez “so grounded, she freely regards everything (and measures nothing).”

Rodríguez, who has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the California Arts Council, has published her work in Ploughshares and The Kenyon Review and currently lives in Los Angeles. 

The reading, which is co-sponsored by the Poetry Center and the Project on Women and Social Change, will be followed by a book sale and signing. For further information, contact Cindy Furtek in the Poetry Center office at (413) 585-4891 or Ellen Doré Watson, director, at (413) 585-3368.

Office of College Relations
Smith College
Garrison Hall
Northampton, Massachusetts 01063

Marti Hobbes
News Assistant
T (413) 585-2190
F (413) 585-2174
mhobbes@email.smith.edu

Current News &
Events

News Release
Archive

 
DirectoryCalendarCampus MapVirtual TourContact UsSite A-Z