LOCAL>> Why to These Rocks: 50 Years of Poetry from the Community of Writers

The Mill Valley Public Library & the Marin Poetry Center invite you to a virtual book launch for Heyday Books‘ release of Why to These Rocks: 50 Years of Poetry from the Community of Writers.

The evening will celebrate fifty years of poetry written in and inspired by the High Sierra workshop. Pulitzer Prize winners Forrest Gander, Robert Hass, Sharon Olds, and Greg Pardlo will join Brenda Hillman & other notables to read a poem from this unique collection.

The evening of poetry and celebration, including a musical introduction by Cornelius Eady, is sure to inspire!

In collaboration with Marin Poetry Center. Major support for this project has been provided by Ken Haas; the California Center for the Book, a program of the California Library Association, supported in whole or in part by the US Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act, administered in California by the State Librarian; and the alums and friends of the Poetry Workshop of the Community of Writers.

Cornelius Eady first joined the conference staff in 1992. He is the author of over a dozen books, including Victims of the Latest Dance Craze, winner of the 1985 Lamont Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets; The Gathering of My Name, a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize; and Brutal Imagination, a National Book Award finalist. His most recent book is The War against the Obvious.

Forrest Gander has been a frequent staff poet at the conference for over a decade and is the author of numerous books of poetry, prose, and translations. His 2012 collection Core Samples from the World was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. His most recent poetry collection, Be With, was awarded the 2019 Pulitzer Prize and includes the poem “Madonna del Parto,” published in Why to These Rocks.

Robert Hass first taught at the conference in 1987 and has directed the Community of Writers poetry program since 2004. He is the author of many books of poetry, translations, and prose. His 2007 collection, Time and Materials, won both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. His most recent collection is Summer Snow.

Brenda Hillman first taught at the conference in 1988 and became director of the Poetry Program in 2021. She is the author of ten collections of poetry, most recently Extra Hidden Life, Among the Days, which was awarded the 2019 Northern California Book Award for Poetry. Other volumes include Bright Existence, a finalist for the 1993 Pulitzer Prize; Practical Water, winner of the 2010 Los Angeles Times Book Award for Poetry, and Seasonal Works with Letters on Fire, which received the 2014 Griffin International Poetry Prize.

Sharon Olds first taught at the conference in 1986 and continues to return almost annually. She has published over a dozen books, including the 2012 collection Stag’s Leap, which won the Pulitzer Prize and the T. S. Eliot Prize. Satan Says received the inaugural San Francisco Poetry Center Award. Her most recent collection is Arias.

Gregory Pardlo first joined the poetry staff in 2017. He is the author of two collections of poetry; his second, Digest, was the winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize.  His most recent publication is the nonfiction book Air Traffic: A Memoir of Ambition and Manhood in America.