October 19, 2009

Acclaimed Poet Spencer Reece to Speak as Part of Visiting Writers Series

WORCESTER, Mass. – Acclaimed poet Spencer Reece will give a reading as part of the College of the Holy Cross’ Visiting Writers Series on Thursday, Nov. 5 at 7:30 p.m. in the Levis Reading Room at Dinand Library.   The event, sponsored by the Jenks Chair in Contemporary American Letters and the Creative Writing Program, is free and open to the public.

Selected by the U.S. poet laureate Louise Glück, Reece’s book of poems The Clerk’s Tale (Mariner Books, 2004) was awarded the Bakeless Prize by Middlebury College and the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, and was nominated for a L.A. Times Book Award. To coincide with the book’s publication—it had been 15 years in the making, its author laboring in relative obscurity while working days as a Brooks Brothers clerk—The New Yorker dedicated the entire back page to the publication of the book’s title poem. 

Louise Glück describes the collection of 50 poems as having “an effect I have never quite seen before, half cocktail party, half passion play . . . We do not expect virtuosity as the outward form of soul-making, nor do we associate generosity and humanity with such sophistication of means, such polished intelligence . . . Much life has gone into the making of this art, much patient craft."

Reece’s works have appeared in publications such as Boulevard, Poetry, and The New Yorker.  In 2009, his “Two Hospice Essays” won a Pushcart Prize. Among other awards he has received are a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Award, and a National Endowment for the Arts poetry fellowship. Spencer Reece is a postulant for holy orders to the Episcopal priesthood.

For additional information contact Cristal Steuer at 508.793.2419