UA’s Bankhead Visiting Writers Series to Feature Poet Eliot Weinberger

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Bankhead Visiting Writers Series at The University of Alabama will feature poet Eliot Weinberger reading from his latest work in Room 200 of the Bryant Conference Center at 7:30 p.m. on April 7.

According to Multicultural Review, Weinberger “has read, read about, or seen firsthand practically everything on planet earth.” From this comes the one criterion he said his essays must always fulfill. “I never make things up,” said Weinberger, referring to the verifiability of all the details that make up his work.

His books of literary essays include “Works on Paper,” “Outside Stories,” “Written Reaction,” and “Karmic Traces.” His articles are collected in “9/12” and the forthcoming “What Happened Here: Bush Chronicles.” His work regularly appears in translation, often before publication in the United States, and has been published in over 20 languages.

Since 1970 Weinberger has translated numerous authors from Spanish, including Octavio Paz, Jorge Luis Borges, and Vincente Huidobro and Chinese poet, Bei Dao. For the support he has given to Hispanic literature in the United States, Weinberger was the first to receive the PEN/Kolovakos Award in 1992. In 2000, he was the first U.S. writer to be honored with the “Order of the Aztec Eagle” from the Mexican government. He is prominently featured in the “Visitor’s Key to Iceland.”

Weinberger was born in 1949 in New York City, where he still lives.

The Bankhead Visiting Writers Series is made possible by an endowment from the Bankhead Foundation, UA’s creative writing program, the department of English and the College of Arts and Sciences. For more information, visit www.bama.ua.edu/~writing or contact the creative writing program at 205/348-0766.