Craft Talk: “A Red Hot Half-Brick in an Old Sock: Tradition, Subversion, and the Sonnet” (1pm-2pm)
Reading: “Burn After Reading: The Poetry of Kevin Craft and Troy Jollimore.” (2:30 pm)

Come for one or both events! This is a unique chance to hear and learn from two illustrious out-of-town poets. This event is a collaboration of the Mill Valley Library and Marin Poetry Center.

Why would anyone today choose to write a sonnet? In fact, some of our best contemporary poets have taken a stab at the venerable form, in order to explore (and, at times, explode) the limits of the form, and to place the sonnet in the service of surprising, at times radical ends. In this joint talk, poets Kevin Craft and Troy Jollimore discuss the sonnet form, its history, its poetic nature, its particular capabilities and possibilities, and talk about their own experiences reading and writing sonnets. (The craft talk will be followed by a break with wine and savory treats.)

Location: Mill Valley Library
375 Throckmorton Avenue
Mill Valley, CA

Kevin Craft directs the Written Arts Program at Everett Community College. His first book, Solar Prominence, won the Gorsline Prize. His new collection is Vagrants & Accidentals. His work has appeared in Poetry, The Kenyon Review, New England Review, and The Stranger. He has received fellowships and awards from the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, MacDowell Colony, the Bogliasco Foundation (Italy), the Camargo Foundation and many others. He is executive editor of Poetry NW Editions, and a director of the UW Writers in Rome program.

Troy Jollimore is the author of three books of poetry and three of philosophy, as well as numerous articles. His awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, and Fellowships from Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference and the Stanford Humanities Center. Tom Thomson in Purgatory won the National Book Critics Circle award in poetry. Syllabus of Errors appeared on the New York Times‘ list of the best books of poetry in 2015. His reviews appear in the Chicago Tribune and the Washington Post. He is currently a professor in the Philosophy Department at California State University, Chico.