Poets and Scholars Gather for Celebration of Plumly and Poetry
June 29, 2010
The career of Stanley Plumly will be the focus of a two-day conference October 29th and 30th.
On October 29th and 30th, some of the nation's most distinguished poets and critics will congregate in Ulrich Recital Hall, located in Tawes Hall, for the English Deparment's banner event of the fall semester. The event is sponsored by the Center for Literary and Comparative Studies. Speakers for "A Celebration of Stanley Plumly and Poetry" will include Morris Dickstein, Linda Gregerson, Teresa Svoboda, and Duncan Wu, among others. Keynote lectures by David Baker, Professor of English at Denison University and Poetry Editor of The Kenyon Review, and David Wyatt, Professor of English at the University of Maryland, will bookend the event.
The conference will also welcome back to Maryland many poets who studied under Plumly in Maryland's MFA
Program in Creative Writing. There will be readings from Plumly's friends and colleagues and from Plumly himself.
This timely conference follows two recent announcements that have brought new recognition to Plumly's work. Earlier this month, Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley announced the appointment of Plumly as the next Poet Laureate for the State of Maryland. He will be honored by the governor at a reception in Annapolis on October 1. Plumly is the second professor from Maryland's Program in Creative Writing to serve as Poet Laureate this decade; Michael Collier held the post from 2001-2004.
Plumly was also recently named recipient of the John William Corrington Award for Literary Excellence, which will be presented to him at Centenary College in Shreveport, Lousiana in the spring. As part of the celebration, some 300 students will be reading Plumly's two latest poetry collections, Now That My Father Lies Down Beside Me and Old Heart, along with his biography, Posthumous Keats. Previous winners of the Corrington Award include, among others, Eudora Welty, Anthony Hecht, Richard Wilbur, and Paul Muldoon.
The Corrington Award recognizes Plumly's poetry "not only because it is rhetorically accessible to all readers" but also because it addresses themes -- such as the "mysterious relationship of child to parent and more generally of past to present, the way self-knowledge, and the 'natural supernaturalism'" of the environment -- that are "urgent" to young and old alike.
More information on "A Celebration of Stanley Plumly and Poetry," including the schedule and biographies of the participants, is available here.