George Drew will read from “The Horse’s Name Was Physics,” his collection of poetry describing the development of modern physics and the dawn of the nuclear age, on Wednesday, April 5, at 7:30 p.m. in Sorum House.
The event is free and open to the public. It is co-sponsored by the departments of Physics and Astronomy, English and Converging Technologies, with support from an Intellectual Enrichment Grant. There will be a public reception following the reading.
The Mississippi-born Drew, who lives in New York state, has been widely published to strong reviews. His work has appeared in such journals as Antioch Review, Beloit Poetry Journal, Cimarron Review, Hollins Critic, Maine Times, Mississippi Review, The Quarterly, Quarterly West, Salmagundi, Southern Poetry Review and Vermont Literary Review.
“The Horse’s Name Was Physics” has been lauded as graceful and richly nuanced.
“George Drew has captured the high tragedy of the terrifying human achievement in physics in the critical years between the two great wars of the twentieth century, and he has done that in graceful poetry… a courageous undertaking, involving not only science but also politics and history, and not only tragedy but also pathos and comedy,” said reviewer Harry Staley of the University at Albany.
Bruce Gregory of Harvard-Smithsonian Center of Astrophysics wrote, “George Drew weaves the story of 20th-century physics together with the lives of the people who helped make it and produces a compelling vision. He uses finely-crafted poetry to recreate a world that will probably continue to influence ours for as long as human beings exist. A remarkable feat and a true treat for the mind and heart.”
Drew’s first book, “Toads in a Poisoned Tank,” was published in 1986. A bilingual edition of his chapbook, “So Many Bones (Poems of Russia),” was published in 1997 by a Russian press. One of Drew’s poems received honorable mention in the Robert Frost Foundation’s poetry competition in 2002, and another in the W.B. Yeats Society’s competition, the same year.
Drew was the winner of the 2003 Paumanok Poetry Award, an annual award given to a poet writing in English. He was awarded a residency at the Vermont Studio Center in 2004.
For more information about the reading and reception, contact Rebecca Koopmann, associate professor of physics and astronomy, at ext. 6786; koopmanr@union.edu.