Robert Hass
Poet

Artist-in-Residence for the Department of English

Nature of the Residency: Mr. Hass will be on campus on Thursday, April 17, 2008. "A Conversation with Robert Hass," an informal talk and question and answer session for students will take place at 4PM in the Maryland Room of Marie Mount Hall. In the evening Mr. Hass will give a public talk, held in the Special Events Room of the McKeldin Library followed by a reception and book signing.

Public Presentation: Mr. Hass has titled his talk "The Egret Fishing Through its Smeared Reflection: Poetry and the Natural World." This presentation (7:00 p.m.) is free and open to the public; it will take place in the Special Events Room of the McKeldin Library and will be followed by a book signing and reception.

Biographical Information: Robert Hass has published many books of poetry including Field Guide, Praise, Human Wishes, and Sun Under Wood, as well as a book of essays on poetry, Twentieth Century Pleasures. Hass translated many of the works of Nobel Prize-winning Polish poet, Czeslaw Milosz, and he edited Selected Poems: 1954-1986 by Tomas Tranströmer, The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa, and Poet's Choice: Poems for Everyday Life. As US Poet Laureate (1995-1997), his deep commitment to environmental issues led him to found River of Words (ROW), an organization that promotes environmental and arts education in affiliation with the Library of Congress Center for the Book. Hass is chairman of ROW's board of directors, and judges their annual international environmental poetry and art contest for youth. He is also a board member of International Rivers Network. Robert Hass was chosen as Educator of the Year by the North American Association on Environmental Education and, in 2005, elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. His forthcoming books include Now & Then, a collection of his Washington Post articles (Shoemaker & Hoard, April 2007) and a collection of poems entitled Time and Materials (Ecco/ HarperCollins, Fall 2007). Awarded the MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship, twice the National Book Critics' Circle Award (in 1984 and 1997), and the Yale Series of Younger Poets in 1973, Robert Hass is a professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley.

If you have questions, contact the UM Department of English.

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