Book Launch and Reading
John Matthias and Aiden Semmens introduce their new collections of poetry at the University of Notre Dame London on June 27.
A wine and cheese reception will follow the reading.
John Matthias taught at Notre Dame for more than forty years before his retirement. He was a co-founder of both the London Program itself, the Notre Dame Creative Writing Program, and the Notre Dame Review, of which he is still an editor. He is also a Life Member of Clare Hall, Cambridge, and a former Visiting Fellow. His publications include some thirty books of poetry, translation, memoir, and literary criticism. This year celebrates the completion of his three volume Collected Poems, published by Shearsman in the UK: Collected Shorter Poems, vol. 1 (1961-1994); Collected Shorter Poems, Vol. 2 (1995-2011), and Collected Longer Poems. He has published in many magazines, including The New Yorker, Poetry, PN Review, The Cambridge Literary Review, Paris Review, Parnassus, Boulevard, Pleiades, and the TLS.
Aidan Semmens’s poems have appeared in Jacket, Shearsman, Shadowtrain, Stride, Great Works, Free Verse, Blackbox Manifold, Poetry Wales, and Notre Dame Review. His first full-length collection, A Stone Dog, was published by Shearsman Books in 2011. His most recent book, published in 2013, is The Book of Isaac, dealing with the Russian-Jewish experience from the history of his own family. He is also editor of the new anthology of poetry from and about the county of Suffolk, By the North Sea, also published by Shearsman.
Tony Frazer, editor of Shearsman Books, publishes one of the best poetry lists in existence. Shearsman publishes contemporary British and American poetry, as well as foreign language poetry in translation. The press also has an impressive list of “classics” which are difficult to find in handsomely printed reader’s editions. Examples of these, to select just four, include Tottle’s Miscellany, Browning’s Sordello and The Ring and the Book, and D.H. Lawrence’s Birds, Beast and Flowers.
For more information, view Book Launch and Reading Flyer PDF
Originally published at international.conductor.nd.edu.