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MEDIA CONTACT: Department of English (585) 275-4092 or Helene Snihur hsnihur@rochester.edu
585.275.7800
March 23, 2006
The Plutzik Reading Series continues its spring season with two back-to-back poetry readings at the University of Rochester.
At noon on Tuesday, April 11, Ilya Kaminsky, who was born in the former Soviet Union, will read selections from his works. Continuing the series on Thursday, April 13, at 8 p.m., Bin Ramke, a poet and professor of English at the University of Denver, will read from his works. Both readings are free and open to the public and will take place in the Welles-Brown Room of Rush Rhees Library on the University's River Campus.
Kaminsky was born in Odessa in 1977 and came to the United States with his family in 1993. He is a graduate of Brighton High School and a former University of Rochester undergraduate student. Kaminsky is the author of Dancing in Odessa, which won the Whiting Writers'Award, the Metcalf Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Ruth Lilly Fellowship from Poetry magazine. It was also named Best Poetry Book of the Year in 2004 by ForeWord magazine. His highly acclaimed poetry has appeared in The New Republic, the American Literary Review, and Salmagundi.
Currently residing in Berkeley, Calif., Kaminsky will begin teaching in the graduate writing program at San Diego State University in the fall of 2006. He is the co-founder of Poets for Peace, an organization that sponsors poetry readings across the globe to benefit different relief organizations, such as Survivors International. He has also worked at Bay Area Legal Aid helping impoverished and homeless people.
Ramke teaches writing and contemporary literature and edits the Denver Quarterly at the University of Denver. He is the author of eight books of poetry including Matter (2004), Airs, Waters, Places (2001), and The Difference Between Night and Day (1978), which won the Yale Younger Poets Award. His essays and reviews have appeared in the Boston Review, the Ohio Review, and American Notes & Letters.
Ramke is currently working on his upcoming book of poetry titled Birds Fly Through Us, which will be released in winter 2007. He received his master's degree from the University of New Orleans and his doctorate from Ohio University.
The Plutzik Series is one of the country's oldest and most prestigious literary reading programs. Established to honor the work of Hyam Plutzik, a distinguished poet and Deane Professor of Poetry and Rhetoric at the University, it has featured more than 175 noted writers, including Pulitzer Prize winners Anthony Hecht, Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Lowell, Gwendolyn Brooks, Richard Wilbur, and Galway Kinnell. The Plutzik Series is administered by the Department of English. For more information, call (585) 275-4092.
The University of Rochester (www.rochester.edu) is one of the nation's leading private universities. Located in Rochester, N.Y., the University gives students exceptional opportunities for interdisciplinary study and close collaboration with faculty through its unique cluster-based curriculum. Its College of Arts, Sciences, and Engineering is complemented by the Eastman School of Music, Simon School of Business, Warner School of Education, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, Schools of Medicine and Nursing, and the Memorial Art Gallery.
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