Poet Joan Larkin to Read at Smith

Smith College will present a reading by Joan Larkin, the college’s new Grace Hazard Conkling Poet in Residence, at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 16, in Stoddard Hall Auditorium. 

The reading is free, open to the public and wheelchair accessible.

A native of Massachusetts who has lived in New York City for many years, Larkin is the author of five books of poems, most recently “My Body: New and Selected Poems” and the chapbook “Legs Tipped with Small Claws.”

In her work, Larkin takes on a range of difficult subjects, including sexuality, illness, loss and alcoholism, combining intensity of material and mastery of craft with incredible grace. As a Los Angeles Times review reflected, “For Larkin, poetry is a form of witness; she offers no false hopes, no resolutions, except to reflect…the complicated, at times uncontrollable, messiness of being alive.”

In addition to poetry, Larkin is a playwright, prose writer and translator. Her work in other genres includes “The AIDS Passion” and “Brother Dust,” a hip-hop version of Sophocles’ “Antigone.” Larkin also co-founded the independent press Out & Out Books and co-edited a number of groundbreaking poetry anthologies including “Amazon Poetry” and “A Woman Like That: Lesbian and Bisexual Writers Tell Their Coming Out Stories.”

Larkin’s reading will be followed by a booksale and signing. To reserve an assistive listening device, e-mail Jennifer Blackburn of the Poetry Center at least one day prior to the reading.

For information on other disability access, call (413) 585-2407. To request a sign language interpreter specifically, call (413) 585-2071 (voice or TTY) or e-mail ODS@smith.edu at least 10 days prior to the event.