November 12, 2014
Dean Young and Aleksandar Hemon Read at Lewis Center for the Arts
Award-winning writers next in Althea Ward Clark W’21 Reading Series
Photo Caption 1: Writer Aleksandar Hemon
Photo Credit 1: Velibor Božović
Photo Caption 2: Poet Dean Young
Photo Credit 2: from http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/dean-young
What: Reading - Althea Ward Clark W’21 Reading Series
Who: Poet Dean Young and fiction writer Aleksandar Hemon
When: Wednesday, November 19 at 4:30 p.m.
Where: Berlind Theatre at McCarter Theatre Center
Free and open to the public
(Princeton, NJ) On Wednesday, November 19, poet and Pulitzer Prize finalist Dean Young and
award-winning Bosnian-American fiction writer Aleksandar Hemon will read from their works
as part of the Althea Ward Clark W’21 Reading Series of the Program in Creative Writing at the
Lewis Center for the Arts. The reading, beginning at 4:30 p.m. at the Berlind Theatre at the
McCarter Theatre Center, is free and open to the public.
Dean Young’s numerous collections of poetry include Strike Anywhere (1995), winner of the
Colorado Prize for Poetry; Skid (2002), finalist for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize; Elegy on
Toy Piano (2005), finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; and Primitive Mentor (2008), shortlisted for the
International Griffin Poetry Prize. His poems have been featured in Best American Poetry
numerous times. He has also written a book on poetics, The Art of Recklessness: Poetry as
Assertive Force and Contradiction (2010).
Upon presenting Young with the Academy Award in Literature, the American Academy of Arts
and Letters noted, “Dean Young’s poems are as entertaining as a three-ring circus and as
imaginative as a canvas by Hieronymus Bosch.”
Young has also been awarded a Stegner Fellowship from Stanford University, as well as
fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the
Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. He has taught at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, the lowresidency M.F.A. program at Warren Wilson College, and the University of Texas-Austin, where
he holds the William Livingston Chair of Poetry.
Aleksandar Hemon is the author of The Lazarus Project, which was a finalist for the 2008
National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award, and three collections of short
stories: The Question of Bruno (2001); Nowhere Man (2004), which was also a finalist for the
National Book Critics Circle Award; and Love and Obstacles (2009). Born in Sarajevo, Hemon
visited Chicago in 1992, intending to stay for a matter of months. While he was there, Sarajevo
came under siege, and he was unable to return home. Hemon wrote his first story in English in
1995. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2003 and a “genius grant” from the
MacArthur Foundation in 2004.
About his latest collection of nonfiction work, The Book of My Lives, Junot Díaz wrote,
“Incandescent. When your eyes close, the power of Aleksandar Hemon’s colossal talent
remains.” This autobiographical work was a finalist for the 2013 National Book Critics Circle
Award.
The Lewis Center’s Program in Creative Writing is sponsoring this event as part of the Althea
Ward Clark W’21 Reading Series, which provides an opportunity for students, as well as all in
the greater Princeton region to hear and meet the best writers of contemporary poetry and fiction.
All readings are free and open to the public and take place on select Wednesdays at 4:30 p.m. at
the Berlind Theatre at McCarter Theatre Center.
Upcoming readings in the series include:

New work by students from Program in Creative Writing fall courses on December 10

Evie Shockley and Meg Wolitzer on February 11

A.E. Stallings and Akhil Sharma on March 11

Rachel Kushner and John Yau on April 15

New work by students from Program in Creative Writing spring courses on April 29

Work by Program in Creative Writing seniors on May 4 and 6
To learn more about the Program in Creative Writing, the Reading Series, and the more than 100
events offered annually by the Lewis Center visit arts.princeton.edu.
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The Lewis Center for the Arts encompasses Princeton University’s academic programs in
creative writing, dance, theater, and visual arts, as well as the interdisciplinary Princeton Atelier.
The Center represents a major initiative of the University to fully embrace the arts as an
essential part of the educational experience for all who study and teach at Princeton. Over 100
diverse public performances, exhibitions, readings, and lectures are offered each year, most of
them free or at a nominal admission fee. For more information about the Lewis Center for the
Arts, including a complete list of supporters, please visit arts.princeton.edu