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Beinecke Library, Yale University<br>
May 4, 2005<br><br>
A Celebration of Bryher and Visa for Avalon <br>
with readings from the novel and comments about Bryher's work and
life<br><br>
<br>
For more information, please contact Patricia Willis,
patricia.willis@yale.edu<br><br>
WHO?<br>
… Susan Howe, author of several books of poems and criticism, most
recently, The Midnight (2003), and The Europe of Trusts (2002). She is
currently the Samuel P. Capen Chair of Poetry and the Humanities at
SUNY-Buffalo, and is a Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets.<br>
… Patrick Gregory, author of The Daguerreotype (2004), and son of poet,
translator, and critic Horace Gregory and poet Marya Zaturenska. Patrick
Gregory and his parents knew Bryher intimately, and Gregory is one of the
few friends living who can offer insights and information about her life
and work.<br>
… Cynthia Hogue, author of several collections of poetry and criticism,
most recently Flux (2004), and is The Jonathan and Maxine Marshall Chair
in Modern and Contemporary Poetry at Arizona State University. She is the
2005 H.D. Fellow at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.<br>
… Jan Freeman, author of three collections of poetry, most recently Simon
Says (2000), and director of Paris Press. She is currently at work on
several Bryher projects.<br>
… Patricia C. Willis, curator of the Yale Collection of American
Literature at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.<br>
… Timothy Young, assistant curator of the Modern Books and Manuscripts at
the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library. <br><br>
WHAT?<br>
Paris Press director Jan Freeman will introduce Visa for Avalon to the
audience and offer background information about the long-neglected
author, Bryher. Event participants will then read passages from Visa for
Avalon and offer their comments about Bryher, Visa for Avalon, and the
timely political and social message of the novel. This event is funded in
part by the Massachusetts Cultural Council.<br><br>
WHEN?
WHERE? <br>
Wednesday, May 4,
2005
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library <br>
4:00 - 5:00
p.m.
The Mezzanine <br>
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Street<br>
Reception at 5:00
p.m.
Yale University<br>
Free
Admission
New Haven, CT <br><br>
Bryher (Annie Winifred Ellerman, 1894-1983) was born in England and spent
most of her adult life in Territet, Switzerland and in London. Her novels
and memoirs received high critical praise during her lifetime. However,
nearly all of her work has been neglected during the past thirty years.
Bryher was the partner of H.D., and she was the benefactor of many
writers and thinkers, from Marianne Moore to Walter Benjamin. She was
involved in politics, film, and psychology, as well as literature. Bryher
was the publisher of Contact Publishing, Life and Letters To-day, and
Close Up, and she helped to support the intellectual sanctum, Shakespeare
and Company. Bryher's papers are housed at the Beinecke Rare Book and
Manuscript Library.<br><br>
Visa for Avalon remains a suggestive and beguiling fiction by one of the
twentieth century's most interesting artistic figures. The Paris Press
should be thanked for republishing it.<br>
--Margaret Atwood, New York Review of Books<br><br>
Visa for Avalon is a testament to the power of fiction. It illuminates
the truth at the heart of what is commonly called reality. This account
of lives transformed and ruined by the triumph of a totalitarian rule is
a timely reminder of how moral and intellectual laziness and apathy can
pave the road to the reign of terror brought on by such a
system."‹--AZAR NAFISI, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran <br><br>
"Visa for Avalon is so tense, its characters so tightly wound,
if it were any longer it would be in danger of implosion.... This book is
the literary equivalent to espresso...." -- Milwaukee Journal
Sentinel<br><br>
"Visa for Avalon is a startling political allegory that readers,
especially the politically curious, will return to for deciphering our
own time." --San Francisco Chronicle<br><br>
In these jittery times when questions of national security dominate,
Paris Press has decided the moment is right for a rediscovery of a
political allegory called Visa for Avalon. . . . Bryher's corpus and life
story are worth bringing to light. Visa for Avalon is a short allegory
about the devastating cost of political apathy. . . . [M]any political
allegories feel static; Orwell's Animal Farm and Huxley's Brave New
World come to mind. . . . But Visa for Avalon is a bit of a nail-biter.
It's set in a no-name country that looks a lot like England, where a
totalitarian movement claiming to be working for the betterment of the
common citizenry is about to sweep away individual rights. . . Overcoming
roadblocks, mobs, sadistic bureaucrats and forces of nature, her
characters push forward to Avalon, where society perhaps is more
enlightened‹or not. The indeterminacy of Bryher's ending is one of the
subtler aspects of this lively story. As someone who helped
refugees escape Hitler, Bryher certainly knew that there's a time when
it's wiser to flee into the unfamiliar than to stand and fight a known
evil. But Visa for Avalon is certain about one thing: There's never
a time to stop thinking, stop questioning."<br>
--Maureen Corrigan, NPR's "Fresh Air"<br><br>
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