Two prominent writers will visit Union over the next few days. Professor and author Helen Vendler will speak on “Walt Whitman: the Noncombatant War Poet” Friday at 5 p.m. in Emerson Auditorium, while Irish poet and playwright Paula Meehan will read from her recent works Monday, Oct. 19 at 7:30 p.m. in Room 019 of the Humanities Building.
Vendler is the A. Kingsley Porter University Professor of English and American Literature at Harvard University. She has written books about many famous writers, including William Butler Yeats, John Keats and William Shakespeare. Her Mellon lectures, “Last Looks, Last Books: Stevens, Plath, Lowell, Merrill, Bishop,” will appear in print next spring.
Vendler, who is currently working on “Selected Poems of Emily Dickinson: 150 Poems with Commentaries,” is a frequent contributor to “The New York Review of Books” and the “The New Republic.”
Meehan’s work has won her many accolades, among them the Martin Toonder Award, the Butler Literary Award and the Denis Devlin Award. A resident of Dublin, she has written many books of poetry, including “Return and No Blame,” “Reading the Sky,” “Pillow Talk” and “Mysteries of the Home: A Selection of Poems.” Her newest volume is “Reading Rain.”
In addition to poetry, Meehan has also penned the plays “Mrs. Sweeney,” “Cell: A Play,” “The Voyage,” “The Wolf of Winter” and “Kirkle.” She holds degrees from Trinity College and Eastern Washington University.
For additional information on Vendler’s visit, call 388-6206; for Meehan, call 388-8065.