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Dual Language Poetry Event with Chinese and Monadnock region pastoral poets
October 11, 2017 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Wednesday, October 11. 7pm. Historical Society of Cheshire County, 246 Main Street
Dual Language Poetry Event with Chinese and Monadnock region pastoral poets.
Historical Society of Cheshire County Hosts Dual Language Pastoral Poetry Event on October 11
Wednesday, October 11 at 7 pm the Historical Society of Cheshire County is hosting a dual language poetry event. Chinese pastoral poets and Monadnock pastoral poets will read poems in Mandarin and English. There will be musical interludes and a dancelike demonstration of Kung Fu as well. The event at the Historical Society, 246 Main Street in Keene, is being held in conjunction with a three-day colloquium at Keene State College’s Mason Library: The Magic of Monadnock, Poetry Bridging Continents.
Rodger Martin, Keene State College adjunct journalism professor and poet, will introduce the poets and talk about the impact of a geographical feature (Mount Monadnock and Maoshan) on both communities. Martin says, “Often times the word “pastoral” is misinterpreted as that of a church pastor and his or her congregation or the pastoral, agricultural quality of a rural existence. In the case of the Monadnock Pastoral Poets, these poets care, in an almost spiritual way, for the language and the place which gave meaning to that language.” Martin has lectured and read his own poetry in Shanghai and Nanjing.
The featured Chinese pastoral poets are Zi Chuan, Chenn Yihai, and Mi Zheng-Ying.
Zi Chuan (pen name of Zhang Rong-cai) was born in Gaoyou County, Jiangsu Province. His works have been translated into English, French, German, Japanese and Korean. He is the recipient of an Excellent Editor Award of Jiangsu Province, the Purple Mountain Poetry Prize (2005), and the Third Chinese Poetry Biennial Award (2011-2012).
Chenn Yihai was born in Dongtai, Jiangsu Province. He is Professor and Dean of the School of Chinese Language & Literature at Yancheng Teachers University (YCTU). In addition to his own publications, he has translated many of the Western classics into Chinese. He is the recipient of the Purple Mountain Literature Award (2011).
Mi Zheng-Ying (pseudonym Blue Lotus) was born in Jiangbian, Shaanxi Province. She is an editor in the Jurong Radio and Television Station, Jiangsu Province. Her publications include The Mild-Climated Regions in the South of the Yangtze River (2010) and My Melancholy Seems not Blue Enough (2014).
The featured Monadnock pastoral poets are John Hodgen, Susan Roney-O’Brien, Henry Walters, and James Beschta.
John Hodgen teaches at Assumption College in Worcester, and he has received the AWP Donald Hall Prize in Poetry and the Chad Walsh Prize in Poetry. Susan Roney-O’Brien has been chosen Poet of the Year by the New England Association of Teachers of English and has won the William and Kingman Poetry Book Award. Henry Walters from Dublin, New Hampshire has worked as a teacher, a naturalist, a falconer, and the steward of a wildlife sanctuary. He was a finalist for the 2016 Kate Tufts Discovery Award. James Beschta teaches poetry and writing at the Worcester Art Museum and he has won Promethean Lamp and Frank O’Hara Poetry Awards.
The Historical Society of Cheshire County is located at 246 Main Street in Keene. The organization has been collecting, preserving, and communicating the history of Cheshire County for 90 years. The Society puts on about 150 programs each year to help people of all ages “find their place in history.” For more information, visit hsccnh.org or call 603.352.1895.