LITERATURE + LECTURES

Brazos Bookstore presents book signings and discussions with writers David Mikics & Tony Hoagland, Sunday, April 25 at 4pm. Celebrate these two writers, both University of Houston faculty members, with Brazos Bookstore!

David Mikics
Who Was Jacques Derrida?
Who Was Jacques Derrida? is the first intellectual biography of Derrida, the first full-scale appraisal of his career, his influence, and his philosophical roots. It is also the first attempt to define his crucial importance as the ambassador of "theory," the phenomenon that has had a profound influence on academic life in the humanities. Mikics lucidly and sensitively describes for the general reader Derrida's deep connection to his Jewish roots. He succinctly defines his vision of philosophy as a discipline that resists psychology. While pointing out the flaws of that vision and Derrida’s betrayal of his most adamantly expounded beliefs, Mikics ultimately concludes that “Derrida was neither so brilliantly right nor so badly wrong as his enthusiasts and critics, respectively, claimed."

"David Mikics's portrait of Jacques Derrida has a colossal value for poets and dreamers like myself. It''s a lucid and sober presentation of a thinker who influenced so strongly huge parts of American literary mind."-- Adam Zagajewski

Mikics is also the co-author with Stephen Burt of the recently published The Art of the Sonnet, which collects one hundred exemplary sonnets of the English language (and a few sonnets in translation), representing highlights in the history of the sonnet, accompanied by short commentaries on each of the poems.

David Mikics is Professor of English at the University of Houston. He published his last book, A New Handbook of Literary Terms, with Yale University Press.

Tony Hoagland
Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty: Poems
In Unincorporated Persons in the Late Honda Dynasty, Tony Hoagland is deep inside a republic that no longer offers reliable signage, in which comfort and suffering are intimately entwined, and whose citizens gasp for oxygen without knowing why. With Hoagland’s trademark humor and social commentary, these poems are exhilarating for their fierce moral curiosity, their desire to name the truth, and their celebration of the resilience of human nature.

Tony Hoagland is the award-winning author of three previous poetry collections, including What Narcissism Means to Me and Donkey Gospel, and a collection of essays, Real Sofistikashun: Essays on Poetry and Craft. He teaches at the University of Houston.