Virginia Tech professor and poet Alexander Dickow will take part in a bilingual reading from his poetry collection on Friday night.
New Dominion Bookshop in Charlottesville will host the reading in English and French from 7-8 p.m.
The event is cosponsored by the Alliance Française de Charlottesville. Alliance Française is the largest cultural network in the world promoting French language and culture on five continents. Alliance Française currently has more than 800 chapters in 130 countries.
Dickow will share excerpts from his new poetry collection in English, The Distance, and You In It, as well as a selection of his French poetry.
The Distance, and You In It, a two part narrative and dramatic poem, features Hob, a demiurgic trickster akin to figures like Maui, Coyote, Panurge or Till Eulenspiegel. Like these tricksters, Hob embodies an essentially amoral force of nature; he often speaks with the crooked words of someone who follows no rules. The Distance, and You In It was published by BlazeVOX Books.
Dickow grew up in Moscow, Idaho, in the Pacific Northwest.
He is professor of French at Virginia Tech and writes poetry, fiction, essays and literary criticism in French and English.
His books of poetry include Caramboles (bilingual, Argol Editions, 2008), Trial Balloons (chapbook, Corrupt Press, 2012), and Appetites (MadHat Press, 2018).
Works in French include a novel, Le Premier Souper (La Volte, 2021); a hybrid work in poetic prose called Rhapsodie curieuse (diospyros kaki) (Louise Bottu, 2017); and a book of critical fragments, Déblais (Louise Bottu, 2021).
Dickow has translated works by Max Jacob, Sylvie Kandé, Gustave Roud and Henri Droguet.
New Dominion Bookshop is located at 404 E. Main St. on the Downtown Mall.
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Crystal Graham
