Doing Donne -- Molly Peacock with Nigel Smith on Feb. 13

Molly Peacock, an acclaimed writer of poetry and creative nonfiction, will appear on Feb. 13 at the next Poets Out Loud event, which will highlight the connections between modern poetry and the work of canonical English poet John Donne. 

Peacock will read Donne’s poetry along with some of her works that were influenced by Donne, said Heather Dubrow, Ph.D., holder of Fordham’s Reverend John Boyd S.J. Chair in Poetic Imagination and director of Poets Out Loud, the poetry community based at the Lincoln Center campus.  

Also appearing will be Nigel Smith, a professor of early modern literature at Princeton, who will perform musical settings of Donne’s work. 

“In general, I think it’s wonderful when people do read the earlier and contemporary poetry together, because there are so many connections, and Donne is of course one of the great love poets and great religious poets of our language,” Dubrow said. 

It will be the third in a series of events, initiated and co-organized by Fordham, that show how Donne’s work is linked to that of today’s poets. Barnard College and the New York Public Library have held similar events, and another is coming up April 15 at the Helix Center in Manhattan. Also, Poets Out Loud collaborated with the John Donne Society to incorporate this theme into the society’s conference in Baton Rouge, La., later this month. 

The event will be held Thursday, Feb. 13, at 7 p.m. in the 12th-floor Lounge/Corrigan Center, Lowenstein Center, at the Lincoln Center campus. It is free and open to the public. 

Molly Peacock’s most recent book is The Paper Garden: Mrs. Delaney Begins Her Life’s Work at 72 (Bloomsbury USA, 2010). She is the author of six books of poetry, recipient of numerous honors, and one of the creators of Poetry in Motion, seen on buses and subways across North America. 

Smith will perform musical settings—co-composed with Andrew C. Lovett—of poems by both John Donne and Paul Muldoon. 

This event is funded in part by Poets & Writers, Inc., with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

--Chris Gosier