Cook County News Herald

Minnesota poet laureate to visit Grand Marais




Robert Bly, one of the most important and influential poets in America, will present his work at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts in Grand Marais on Wednesday, May 5 at 7 p.m.

Bly is best known for his groundbreaking book, Iron John: A Book about Men
(1990), which was on top of the New York
Times
best-seller list for 10 weeks, and stayed on the list for more than a year.

Since his first widely acclaimed book of poetry, Silence in the Snowy Fields
(1962), Bly has been revered by readers around the world.

As a poet, translator, and editor, Bly is responsible for over a hundred books. He won the National Book Award in 1967 for The Light Around the Body,
contributing his prize money to American Writers Against the Vietnam War, a group that he co-founded in 1966.

Throughout his career, Bly has combined the personal and the public, championing both the individual spiritual journey inward and the moral obligations and opportunities we have as social participants.

Bly was born in 1926 in western Minnesota and grew up on a family farm. His work is grounded in the north, in the woods and fields, and in the people. He still lives in Minneapolis and Moose Lake.

Bly’s reading is free and open to the public. This project is a joint venture between the Grand Marais Public Library, WTIP Radio, and the Arrowhead Library System with funding provided in part with money from the vote of the people of Minnesota in November 2008, which dedicated funding to preserve Minnesota’s arts and cultural heritage.

For more information, contact Linda Chappell at 387-1140.


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