JOIN US

for a Night of Celebration and Support

to Benefit the Grolier Poetry Foundation and Forums Trust

Featuring a Reading, Discussion, and a Book Signing


WITH POETS PETER BALAKIAN AND SUSAN BARBA

Friday, January 25, 2019, AT 7PM

IN THE MOUNT VERNON BALLROOM

at the

HISTORIC SHERATON COMMANDER


This Event Will Include a Reception

with Delicious Hors d'oeuvres and a Cash Bar .

Mount Vernon Ballroom, Sheraton Commander

Parking will be validated at the rate of $15.00.

PETER BALAKIAN
SUSAN BARBA
A MESSAGE FROM PETER AND SUSAN

We will read from our work, reflect on poetry and its relationship to trauma, collective memory and the poem’s engagement with history.

For us, as for so many poets, the Grolier has been a vital location, and, for nearly a hundred years, a temple to poetry and the most historically important bookstore of its kind. Because poetry is the cutting edge of language and a singular force in probing human experience, the Grolier remains essential to American life. Please come out and support the Grolier and its future. 

* * *

Pulitzer Prize Winning Poet and Grolier Board Member Peter Balakian Peter is the author of seven books of poems, most recently Ozone Journal, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, as well as Ziggurat (2010) and J une-tree: New and Selected Poems, 1974-2000 (2001), and more .

Peter is also the author of a book on the American poet Theodore Roethke and the
co translator of the Armenian poet Siamanto’s Bloody News From My Friend . He is the recipient of many awards and prizes including the Presidential Medal and the Moves Khoranatsi Medal from the Republic of Armenia, and more. He has appeared widely on national television and radio( 60 Minutes, ABC World News Tonight, PBS, Charlie Rose, Fresh Air, etc) , and his work have appeared in a many languages including Armenian, Bulgarian, French, Dutch, Greek, German, Hebrew, Russian, and Turkish. He is Donald M. and Constance H. Rebar Professor of the Humanities, Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing at Colgate University. Read more about Peter.

Poet and Senior Editor for New York Review Books Susan Barba Susan is the author of the poetry collection  Fair Sun  (2017), which was awarded the Anahid Literary Prize from Columbia University and the Minas & Kohar Tölölyan Prize. Her poems have appeared in  The New York Review of Books ,  Poetry , The Hudson Review ,  The Yale Review ,  Antioch Review , Raritan , and elsewhere, and her translations from Armenian have appeared in  Words Without Borders and  Ararat . She has received fellowships from the MacDowell Colony and Yaddo. She works as a senior editor for New York Review Books . Read more about Susan .


THE FOLLOWING BOOKS BY PETER BALAKIAN
AND SUSAN BARBA ARE AVAILABLE ONLINE!

Place your book order now–for pick up at our event. Authors will sign books at the event. Books will also be available for purchase at our event.

Can't attend our event? Order your books now–if you'd like–we'll have them signed and ready for pick up at the Grolier, or ready to ship, after the event. Please email francine.lachance@grolierpoetrybookshop.org to arrange to have your books signed.

The following books, available for online purchase, and purchase at our event, were generously donated by:

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
Books by Peter Balakian
Ozone Journal  $18.00 
Ziggurat  $15.00 
Vice and Shadow  $25.00

GODINE PRESS
Book by Susan Barba:
Fair Sun  $17.95


‌

We have an exciting night planned, a night that honors our legacy of bringing poets and those who love poetry together so as to explore ideas and experience the power of poetry's unifying voice to connect us ever more deeply.

Both the Grolier and the Sheraton Commander were established in 1927.
This is the beginning of a beautiful partnership between two long-time Cambridge organizations that together help preserve the history
of Harvard Square.


* * *

WITH SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR EVENT SPONSORS:

Venue Sponsor, discounted rates:
Michael Guleserian, General Manager of the Sheraton Commander

Book Sponsors, donated books:
Sue Berger Ramin, Associate Publisher, at David R. Godine , Publisher

Randolph Petilos, Poetry and Medieval Studies Editor, at University of Chicago Press

* * *


PLEASE NOTE: Because we need to provide our guest count to the Sheraton many days in advance of this catered event, the earlier you purchase your tickets, the better we can plan to accommodate you!

WHY SUPPORT THE GROLIER FOUNDATION
AND FORUMS TRUST?

There are many reasons, and these are just a few:
  1. Our cultural legacy of hosting poets and those who love poetry from the day our doors opened in 1927 through the present.
  2. Our mission of keeping poetry alive while celebrating the unifying voice of poetry.
  3. Now a private operating foundation, we are transitioning to a public charity. We need your support to take our cultural work from 90 years to 100 years and beyond.
  4. Our place in preserving historic Harvard Square. We are one of only a handful of original, established, and revered institutions still operating.

Can you imagine a world

without a home for poets

and those who love poetry?


We can't either. Support us. Become part of our legacy.


* * *


If you are unable to attend,
but would like to support us, please consider making a donation.

IN THE WORDS OF TWO OF OUR LONGTIME POET FRIENDS:

"The legend of the Grolier must continue so that poets, readers,
and any who stop by can continue to experience the center of its
magic world, that world inside the walls of the Grolier."
-David Ferry

"The Grolier Poetry Book Shop is the greatest poetry place in the universe. If we love poetry, the Grolier is our temple, agora, cottage, mansion, colosseum, and estate.
Support it! Support it!"
-Donald Hall (1928–2018)



The Grolier Poetry Foundation and Forums Trust is a 501(c)(3) organization. The Foundation, which serves as the anchor for the work of the Grolier, is the tax entity established to preserve our impressive legacy of cultural work. Originally formed as a private operating foundation, we are now transitioning to a public charity, and rely on fundraising activities like support from friends, donors, grants, and events to continue our mission. The Grolier Poetry Book Shop and the Grolier Poetry Press both support the Foundation's mission which is to keep poetry alive and to celebrate the unifying voice of poetry.


UPCOMING FOUNDATION EVENTS:

March 2019, Date TBD
Robert Pinsky will read from 
 An Explanation of America
​
April 2019, Date TBD
David Ferry will read from Ellery Street
A Grolier Poetry Press Book Celebration
​
May 4, 2019, 7pm
Arrowsmith Book Launch 

Upcoming Readings in the Grolier Winter/ Spring 2019 Series

Friday, February, 8th, 2019
7:00 P.M.
Ben Mazer 
and A.E. Stallings

Tuesday, April 2nd, 2019
George Kalogeris