Lyn Hejinian Named 2011 Visiting Fellow at Naropa University
Free, Open events offered as part of week-long celebration of poetry

BOULDER – Renowned poet Lyn Hejinian has been selected as the 2011 Visiting Fellow (funded by the Allen Ginsberg Estate) at Naropa University. As part of the week-long residency, there are two free events, open to the public:

Thursday, February 24, 7 p.m.
Lecture with Q&A session
Shambhala Hall, Naropa University
2130 Arapahoe Avenue

Friday, February 25, 8 p.m.
Reading and Book signing
Performing Arts Center, Naropa University
2130 Arapahoe Avenue

Hejinian is a poet, essayist, and translator. Her most recent published book of poetry is Saga/Circus (2008). Other books include A Border Comedy (Granary Books, 2001), Slowly and The Beginner (both published by Tuumba Press, 2002), and The Fatalist (Omnidawn, 2003). In 2000, the University of California Press published a collection of her essays entitled The Language of Inquiry. Hejinian is also actively involved in collaboratively written works, the most recent examples of which include The Wide Road (with Carla Harryman; Belladonna*, 2011) and a collection of poems by Hejinian and Naropa’s Jack Collom titled Situations, Sings (Adventures in Poetry, 2008). Translations of her work have been published in Denmark, France, Spain, Japan, Italy, Russia, Sweden, China, Serbia, Holland, China, and Finland.

Hejinian is currently the co-director with Travis Ortiz of Atelos, a literary project commissioning and publishing cross-genre work by poets. She serves as a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets. She teaches in the English Department at the University of California, Berkeley, and is the chair of the UC-Berkeley Solidarity Alliance, an activist coalition of unions, workers, staff, students, and faculty fighting to maintain accessibility and affordability of public higher education in California.

Naropa University will host a writer each spring semester for a week-long residency through its Allen Ginsberg Visiting Fellowship. The Fellowship is distinguished from other visiting lecturers and programs by its intensive week of the Fellow’s reading, instruction, and direct contact with students. Students are given access to the writer’s expertise, including a week-end practicum and poetry chat. Community-wide events are incorporated into the Fellow’s one-week stay, including a reading of his or her own work, a lecture relating to the development of poetry/prose in the 20th and 21st centuries and a book-signing reception.

Accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, Naropa University is a private, nonprofit, nonsectarian liberal arts institution dedicated to advancing contemplative education. This approach to learning integrates the best of Eastern and Western educational traditions, helping students know themselves more deeply and engage constructively with others. The university comprises a four-year undergraduate college and graduate programs in the arts, education, environmental leadership, psychology and religious studies.

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