Robert Lowell Memorial Lecture Series

In the Spirit of Room 222

In the late 1950s, Robert Lowell led a workshop whose students included three younger writers: George Starbuck, Anne Sexton, and Sylvia Plath. This legendary group gathered in the same small, corner classroom where our creative writing workshops continue to meet. The Robert Lowell Memorial Lectures celebrate this legacy, and the thriving community of writers, teachers and students at Boston University, by bringing a distinguished poet to campus each semester to read alongside a recent graduate of the program.

The Robert Lowell Memorial Reading series is made possible due to the generous support of Fred Levin and his late wife Nancy Livingston (COM ’69). Thanks to Fred’s continuing support, the Lowell Memorial Reading Series takes place twice a year as it has since 2004.

The Spring 2024 Robert Lowell Memorial Lecture

Featuring Phil Schultz and Milica Mijatović

Thursday, March 7th at 7:30PM in the Boston University Hillel House River Room (4th Floor)

Photo Credit: Blue Flower Arts

Philip Schultz is the author of several collections of poetry, including Failure, winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize. His other collections include Luxury, The Wherewithal: A Novel in Verse, The God of Loneliness: New and Selected Poems, Living in the Past, and The Holy Worm of Praise. He is also the author of My Dyslexia and Comforts of the Abyss. His work has been published in The New Yorker, Partisan Review, The New Republic, The Paris Review, Slate, and other magazines. He is the recipient of a Fullbright Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry.

Milica Mijatović is a Serb poet, translator, and author of War Food (Southword Editions), winner of the 2022 Fool for Poetry International Chapbook Competition. Born in Brčko, Bosnia and Hercegovina, she relocated to the United States where she earned a BA in Creative Writing and English Literature from Capital University. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from Boston University and is a recipient of a Robert Pinsky Global Fellowship in Poetry. Her poetry appears or is forthcoming in Rattle, Salamander, Plume, The Louisville Review, Collateral, Santa Clara Review, Poet Lore, and elsewhere. Her poems have been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and she serves as Poetry Editor for Consequence.

 

Read below to see who has read for the Lowell series in the past!

(Photo by Blue Flower Arts)

Fall 2024: Major Jackson and Annette Frost

(Photo by Blue Flower Arts)

Spring 2023: John Murillo and Annaka Saari

(Photo by Milos Bicanski/Getty Images for Homefront TV)

Fall 2022: A.E. Stallings and Togara Muzanenhamo

Spring 2022: Tracy K. Smith and Kirun Kapur

Fall 2021: Gail Mazur and Aaron Caycedo-Kimura

Spring 2021: Peter Balakian and Susan Barba (Photo by Mark DiOrio)

Fall 2020: Natasha Trethewey and Megan Fernandes

Spring 2020: Naomi Shihab Nye and Katherine Hollander

Spring 2019: Mark Halliday and Heather Green

Fall 2018: Marilyn Chin and Tara Skurtu

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Spring 2018: Jane Hirshfield and Natasha Hakimi

Jane Hirshfield

Fall 2017: Mark Doty and Tomas Unger

Tom Sleigh

Spring 2017: Tom Sleigh and Laura Marris

Rita Dove

Fall 2016: Rita Dove and Duy Doan

CD Wright

Spring 2016: Tribute to C.D. Wright

Yusef Komunyakaa and Vanesha Pravin

Fall 2015: Yusef Komunyakaa and Vanesha Pravin

Robert Hass and Meg Tyler

Spring 2015: Robert Hass and Meg Tyler

Sharon Olds and Renee Emerson

Fall 2014: Sharon Olds and Renee Emerson

Paul Muldoon and Bekah Stout

Spring 2014: Paul Muldoon and Bekah Stout

John Ashbery and Sophie Grimes

Fall 2013: John Ashbery and Sophie Grimes

Spring 2013: Terrance Hayes and Ani Gjika

Spring 2013: Terrance Hayes and Ani Gjika

 

Fall 2012: C.K. Williams and Eleanor Goodman

Fall 2012: C.K. Williams and Eleanor Goodman

Spring 2012: Jorie Graham and Patrick Ryan Frank

Spring 2012: Jorie Graham and Patrick Ryan Frank

Fall 2011: Henri Cole and Sara Peters

Fall 2011: Henri Cole and Sara Peters

Spring 2011: Kay Ryan and Katherine Hollander

Spring 2011: Kay Ryan and Katherine Hollander

 

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