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For Immediate Release, April 7, 2008

Contact:

Kevin Dahl, kdahl@biologicadiversity.org, (520) 396-1126
Annie Guthrie, UA Poetry Center, guthrie@email.arizona.edu, (520) 626-4310

Conservation Group, UA Poetry Center Present Talk by Poet W.S. Merwin

TUCSON, Ariz. — Pulitzer prize-winning poet and essayist W.S Merwin will give a talk for the Poetry Center Reading Series on Thursday, April 17 at 8:00 p.m. The talk, entitled “Poetry in the Green World,” is co-sponsored by the Center for Biological Diversity and will be held at the Poetry Center on the University of Arizona campus. The talk is free and open to the public. While in Tucson, Merwin will also visit the Arizona State Prison Writing Workshops.

W.S. Merwin is the author of more than 20 volumes of poetry, including his latest release The Book of Fables. Other recent works include the collections of poems The River Sound and The Pupil, as well as a new translation of Dante’s Purgatorio and his critically lauded translation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. In 1999, W.S. Merwin was named poetry consultant to the Library of Congress for a jointly held position along with poets Rita Dove and Louise Glück. Included in his numerous awards are the Pulitzer Prize, the Tanning Prize, the Bollingen Prize, and the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize. In the fall of 2004, Merwin received the 2004 Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award. His book Migration: Selected Poems 1951 – 2001 was also selected as one of the New York Times 100 Notable Books of the Year.

Merwin will be introduced by Kierán Suckling, executive director and a founder of the Center for Biological Diversity. The national nonprofit conservation, with headquarters in Tucson, is well known for its work defending endangered species and wild places.

“It’s an honor to introduce such a distinguished writer — one who not only helps us understand the world with his words, but also encourages us to be a part of the struggle to protect the natural world from the forces that endanger it,” said Suckling.

The Center for Biological Diversity systematically and ambitiously uses biological data, legal expertise, and the citizen petition provision of the powerful Endangered Species Act to obtain sweeping, legally binding new protections for animals, plants, and the habitat they need to survive. More information is at www.BiologicalDiversity.org.

For more information about W.S. Merwin’s talk, visit www.poetrycenter.arizona.edu. Free parking is available in university parking lots weekdays after 5:00 p.m. For more information call 626-PARK.


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