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Inprint Brown Reading Series: Major Jackson & Alicia Ostriker

Presented by Inprint at Alley Theatre -- Patricia Peckinpaugh Hubbard Stage

February 14, 2011

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Welcome to the 30th anniversary season of the Inprint Margarett Root Brown Reading Series, considered one of the nation’s leading literary programs. Over the years, the Series has presented more than 300 of the world's great writers, including winners of five Nobel Prizes, 49 Pulitzer Prizes, 45 National Book Awards, and seven Booker Prize winners, as well as 13 U. S. Poet Laureates.

The 2010/2011 lineup continues the trend of literary greatness, presenting nine of the best contemporary writers. The season runs from September to April and consists of seven evenings, each beginning with a reading by one or two of the featured writers, followed by an on-stage interview conducted by a local writer or scholar. The evenings conclude with a book sale and signing, where audience members can meet the authors. All readings take place in Downtown Houston’s Theater District and begin at 7:30 pm.

Monday, February 14, 2011, on the Neuhaus Stage, Alley Theatre, the Inprint Brown Reading Series presents Major Jackson & Alicia Ostriker.

MAJOR JACKSON (pictured above) is the author of three books of poetry and is poetry editor of the Harvard Review. His first collection, Leaving Saturn, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize. The New Yorker says of his second book, Hoops, “His poems are witty, musical, and intelligent; he is equally happy discussing the war on terror…or describing early crushes.”

Poet Dorianne Laux says, “Major Jackson makes poems that rumble and rock,” and Booklist writes, “Jackson controls fantastic single lines, wonderfully reminiscent of Billy Collins in odd spots.” In his newest collection of poetry, Holding Company, Jackson explores art, literature, and music as a dark, seductive force in our lives.

ALICIA OSTRIKER, world-renowned poet, literary critic, and nonfiction writer, is the author of 12 poetry collections. She was twice a finalist for the National Book Award for the books The Crack in Everything and The Little Space: Poems Selected and New. Her sixth collection, The Imaginary Lover, won the William Carlos Williams Award.

Ostriker is at the forefront of feminist biblical commentary. Joyce Carol Oates says of her latest poetry collection, The Book of Seventy, which won the Jewish National Book Award, “Here is a hard, obdurate, elusive sort of beauty. Alicia Ostriker is not only one of our very best poets but one of our most crucial,” and Gerald Stern writes, “I’m shocked by these poems, shocked by how good they are.”