Description
Literary Nonfiction. Travel Writing. Southeastern European Studies. For one hot week in June of 1995, poet Ron Padgett toured little-known, isolated Albania, in the company of five fellow American and several Albanian writers and editors. With his lively interest in languages, keen eye for detail, and growing sympathy for the difficulties of the long, repressive period from which Albania was just emerging, Padgett documents the country's sights and sounds, its people and places, and its many surprises. His deft prose shines a clear light on this enigmatic country and its fiercely proud people, so hospitable to strangers, so potentially explosive among themselves.
Author Bio
Ron Padgett grew up in Tulsa and has lived mostly in New York City since 1960. Among his many honors are a Guggenheim Fellowship, the American Academy of Arts and Letters poetry award, the Shelley Memorial Award, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. Padgett's HOW LONG was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in poetry and his COLLECTED POEMS won the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America and the Los Angeles Times prize for the best poetry book of 2013. His other recent books include MOTOR MAIDS ACROSS THE CONTINENT, HOW TO BE PERFECT, JOE: A MEMOIR OF JOE BRAINARD, and IF I WERE YOU. In addition to being a poet, he is the translator of Guillaume Apollinaire, Pierre Reverdy, and Blaise Cendrars. His poems appear in Jim Jarmusch's film Paterson.
Author City: New York, NY USA