Poetry inspired by dance, next installment of Spring 2012 Raymond Carver Reading Series

SU alumnus Jay Rogoff will read from ‘The Art of Gravity’

Poet and dance critic Jay Rogoff will read from his latest work, “The Art of Gravity” (LSU Press, 2011) for the next installment of the Spring 2012 Raymond Carver Reading Series, Wednesday, April 4, in Syracuse University’s Gifford Auditorium. The reading will begin at 5:30 p.m. and be preceded by a question and answer session from 3:45-4:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public. Parking is available in SU’s pay lots.

The poems in Rogoff’s fourth book unfold in a rich variety of forms, both traditional and experimental. Some focus on how Edgar Degas’ paintings expose the artifice and artistic self-consciousness of ballet while, paradoxically, illuminating how it creates rapture. Others investigate dance’s translation of physical gesture into allegorical mystery. Rogoff’s poetry pays tribute to superb dancers who grant audiences seductive glimpses of the sublime, but also to all of us who find in dance a hopeful and redemptive image of ourselves.

A graduate of the creative writing program in SU’s College of Arts and Sciences, Rogoff is a lecturer in the Department of English at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, N.Y. He serves as dance critic for The Hopkins Review, contributes regularly to Ballet Review, and covers the summer New York City Ballet season in Saratoga Springs for the local daily, The Saratogian. His other books include “The Long Fault” (LSU, 2008), which examines the impact of history and art upon the individual imagination; “How We Came to Stand on That Shore” (River City, 2003), which presents poems about immigrant experience and family history; and “The Cutoff” (Word Works, 1995), which follows a minor-league ballplayer and his family through a crucial season and received the Washington Prize for Poetry.

Rogoff has also published “Twenty Danses Macabre” (Spring Garden, 2010), a letterpress chapbook that rings darkly comic changes on the ancient Dance of Death motif. His next full-length collection, “Venera,” which examines love in a variety of forms, is forthcoming from LSU Press in 2013.

His poems and critical prose appear in many journals, including The Kenyon Review, The Hopkins Review, Notre Dame Review, Ploushshares, Poetry London and The Southern Review. Recent prizes include the 2009 Robert Watson Poetry Award and a 2010 Pushcart Prize.

Named for the great short story writer and poet who taught at SU in the 1980s, the Raymond Carver Reading Series is a vital part of Syracuse’s literary life. Presented by the Creative Writing Program in The College of Arts and Sciences, the series each year brings 12 to 14 prominent writers to campus to read their works and interact with students.

The Series will conclude on April 25 with Kelle Groom, author of “I Wore the Ocean in the Shape of a Girl” (Free Press/Simon & Schuster, 2011) and contributing editor for The Florida Review. Further information is available by calling 315-443-2174.