John Ashbery, Robert Coover, Ann Lauterbach, Jonathan Lethem, Joyce Carol Oates, and John Edgar Wideman are just a few of the poets and fiction writers who will give readings and participate in roundtable discussions during a three-day festival hosted by Brown University in Providence to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of Conjunctions, the bimonthly literary magazine edited by Bradford Morrow. The schedule of events begins tonight with a poetry reading by Ashbery, Lauterbach, Robert Kelly, Peter Gizzi, and Rosemarie Waldrop and ends on Saturday evening with an open mic reading called "The Circus." All events are free and open to the public.
The first issue of Conjunctions, published in December 1981, was originally intended as a single-volume festschrift for James Laughlin, the beloved editor of New Directions. But some of the poets from whom Morrow solicited work, including Robert Duncan, promised to send work for future issues of the magazine, so Conjunctions continued on. For years the magazine was published by David R. Godine in Boston, then Collier Macmillan, an imprint of Scribner that has since ceased operations. Since 1990, Conjunctions has been published by Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.
For a complete festival schedule, visit the Conjunctions Web site at www.conjunctions.com.
