The Institute of Creative Writing and Literary Translation Welcomes Poet Marianne Boruch
Marianne Boruch and Members of the Monteverde Translation Lab
On March 17, the JCU Institute of Creative Writing and Literary Translation hosted a poetry reading by Marianne Boruch. Boruch’s reading at John Cabot University six years ago was a huge success and the community was excited to welcome her back.
Professor Carlos Dews opened the reading with a brief introduction of Boruch, who is the author of eight poetry collections including Cadaver, Speak, and The Book of Hours. Her prose includes two essay collections, In the Blue Pharmacy and Poetry’s Old Air, and a memoir, The Glimpse Traveler. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, London Review of Books, American Poetry Review, The Nation and elsewhere.
Boruch then took the podium and read some of her new work from Eventually One Dreams the Real Thing, a poetry collection due out next year. She shared three poems from this collection including “Mudfest,” a poem about growing up in Catholic school to which many audience members were able to relate.
Boruch then moved to older work from her Book of Hours collection. She explained that it was a great struggle to write and even scared her at times. The collection examines difficult issues such as the death of her mother and the essence of poetry itself. All of the poems in this collection are the same length and their first line is their title.
After reading several poems from the Book of Hours, Boruch “read around” her other collections. She then recognized three of her Italian translators who were present in the audience. They represented three of the nine members of the Monteverde Translation Lab, a group of women who meet once a week in Rome’s Monteverde neighborhood to translate poems and prose. Boruch thanked them for their dedication to the art of poetry and their constant support of her work.
After the reading, Boruch mingled with audience members and signed her collections that were being sold by the Almost Corner Bookshop.
Learn more about studying English Language and Literature in Rome at John Cabot University.
