The November Poetry Book Group will be meeting via Zoom
Monday, November 20th • 6:30 PM ET / 11:30 PM IST via Zoom
Session open to all: no registration required.
Click on this link to join the Zoom session
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The poet Sara Berkeley will join us to do a short reading, and respond to questions and comments. Thanks goes to Wake Forest University Press for organizing the participation of Ms. Berkeley.
Winner of the inaugural Yeats Poetry Prize presented by Yeats Society Sligo.
In her newest collection, Sara Berkeley follows a number of sightlines: watching the landscape from the window of a plane, contemplating the effects of climate change, witnessing human vulnerability and resilience as a hospice nurse during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Her gaze traces the coastlines of the Pacific Ocean and moves with a coyote through the California desert to the Palio horse race in Sienna, a return to Ireland, and a migration to upstate New York. A marriage ends, forest fires spread, and a new love takes root in winter. Throughout, Berkeley maintains a tender awareness of the threats that surround us, especially for the children born into this increasingly uninhabitable world, as well as a keen appreciation of the passion and poetic insight we will all need to survive.
“Berkeley’s bravery is magnificent, her palliative courage simply astonishing.”
– Thomas McCarthy, Dublin Review of Books
“This is a book of almost apocalyptic journeys, alive with colour and movement across huge vistas.”
– Martina Evans, The Irish Times
“This collection is rendered with unwavering honesty as well as the understated humanity and grace that are hallmarks of her work.”
– Dermot Bolger, Sunday Business Post
About the Author
Sara Berkeley grew up in Dublin, Ireland. She was educated at Trinity College, Southbank University, London, and the University of California, Berkeley. Some of the Things I’ve Seen is her seventh poetry collection. She has also published a novel and a collection of short stories. Her work has been widely anthologized in Europe, the US, and Canada. She lived for many years in the San Francisco Bay Area and now makes her home with her husband in upstate New York, where she works as a hospice nurse.
All events are listed in Eastern Time and Irish Standard Time.
