You're Invited: "Berryman at 100"

Were you lucky enough to take a course from longtime University of Minnesota professor John Berryman? Do you count yourself fortunate simply to have read his poetry--such as the still influential Dream Songs? Whether your level of Berrymania is red-hot or as yet unexplored, here are 10 reasons to join us for our free October conference delving into the words and worlds of the Pulitzer Prize winner.


Attend "John Berryman at 100" and you can:
10. Check out original poetry manuscripts from the Berryman archives at the University.

9. Browse the new Berryman collection The Heart Is Strange: New Selected Poems (out October 21 on Farrar Straus Giroux) and hear its editor, Daniel Swift, talk about his choices.

8. Discover the connections between cerebral T. S. Eliot and confessional Berryman (in a Friday afternoon panel--schedule here).

7. Re-envision this oft-labeled "confessional" poet as a publicly engaged writer--with help from scholar Philip Coleman, who launches his radical new work, John Berryman's Public Vision: Relocating the Scene of Disorder, at the conference.

6. Hear how to teach Berryman's poetry, to high school students and beyond.

5. Find out about the other Pulitzer Prize-winning poet who taught at the U at the same time as Berryman (in the presentation "Two Views of the Self: How John Berryman and James Wright Changed Course in Mid-career").

4. Luxuriate in Berryman's words, read by poets and alums Jim Moore and Joyce Sutphen along with Professors Peter Campion and Ray Gonzalez, Professor Emeritus Michael Dennis Browne, playwright Ben Kreilkamp, and poet Wang Ping.

3. Enjoy unexpurgated anecdotes from Berryman's students and friends.

2. Listen to internationally renowned poets April Bernard, Henri Cole, and Michael Hofmann, who were tasked to write introductions to the new FSG editions of Berryman's Sonnets, 77 Dream Songs, and The Dream Songs.

1. Spend an unfettered weekend discussing, quoting, and hearing about the poet who once wrote, "These Songs are not meant to be understood, you understand. / They are only meant to terrify & comfort."
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The "John Berryman at 100" Conference takes place October 24-26, 2014, at the Elmer L. Andersen Library, and includes readings, panels, and seminars. Co-sponsored by the Creative Writing Program and the University Libraries, the event is free and open to the public; please register. See you there!