Poetry Presentation
Join us January 30 starting at 10:00 AM for a stimulating morning of poetry.
William Seaton is a poet, translator and critic and the author of Planetary Motions and Dada Poetry: An Introduction with a preface by Timothy Shipe, curator of the University of Iowa’s Dada Archive. His translations of German Dadaist poetry had earlier appeared in Adirondack Review, Read and Destroy. Mad Blood, Maintenant, and Chelsea. He is also the author of Spoor of Desire: Selected Poems, Tourist Snapshots and Cold Water. He is published by Giant Steps Press.
“Formally trained and accomplished in translating Greek, Latin, German, and French, Seaton has a formidable background firmly entrenched in the history of poetry. It’s an art he not only practices but has taught and a craft he takes quite seriously in the tradition of such heady influences as Ezra Pound and poets who worked laboriously upon each word and phrase as being integral to the integrity of an entire piece. Nothing is viewed as superfluous. And in spite of this studied and precise attention to the importance of each word, he avoids a didactic, uninspired mindset and transforms that precision into music. The result is a lovely song to enjoy in its entirety without the obvious dissection of each note in its composition. We might be interested in the ingredients of a great meal, but it is the colors, textures, and tastes we appreciate in the final presentation.” —Karen Corinne, author of Inner Sanctions and Out From Calaboose.
Active with the Cloud House group in San Francisco during the seventies, he headed the Northeast Poetry Society’s College of Poetry and produced the long-running Poetry on the Loose Reading/Performance Series in New York’s Hudson Valley. He was associated as well with the Seligmann Center for the Arts where he presented lectures, readings, and a variety of performance art programs. Educated in the University of Illinois’ English Department and the University of Iowa’s Comparative Literature Program, he has taught in a variety of settings including Brooklyn, a New York State prison, and the Nigerian bush on levels from preschool through graduate courses. He maintains a largely literary blog at williamseaton.blogspot.com. He will be reading from Planetary Motions and from other selected pieces related to Mexico.
