GRANVILLE -- The Denison University Beck Lecture Series opens the 2002/2003 season with "An Evening with Adrienne Rich" at 8 p.m. on Tuesday (Sept. 24) in Slayter Auditorium. "Rich's influence is wide and far-reaching," said David Baker of Denison's English department. "She is, truly, one of the most essential and brave voices in all of contemporary art and letters." Rich will give a reading of her poetry to be followed by a reception and book-signing. The event is free and open to the public. Rich is also scheduled to talk at 2:30 p.m. that day in Barney Hall Room 110.

Adrienne Rich

Since receiving the Yale Younger Poets Award in 1951, at the age of 21, Rich has continued to confront American political and social issues such as poverty, racism, sexism, violence, love between women, problems of survival, isolation and marginality through her poetry. Her work seeks to incite action and invoke deliberation and is widely studied in English and women's studies courses across the country.

A teacher and activist, Rich is the recipient of the 1996 Tanning Award for Mastery in the Art of Poetry. She also has been distinguished by an Academy of Poetry Fellowship, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the Common Wealth Award in Literature, the National Book Award, two Guggenheims and the MacArthur Fellowship. Rich is well-known for declining to accept the National Medal of the Arts from President Bill Clinton in 1997.

Rich is the author of more than 15 volumes of poetry, includingDiving into the Wreck, The Dream of a Common LanguageandMidnight Salvage. She has authored four books of non-fiction prose, including, most recently,Arts of the Possible: Essays & Conversation. Her most recent collection of poems, titledFox, was published in the fall of 2001.

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