Czeslaw Milosz, the winner of the 1978 Neustadt International Prize and the 1980 Nobel Prize for Literature, will be honored at an unprecedented gathering of more than thirty of the world's leading poets, authors, critics, editors, and scholars at Claremont McKenna College on Friday, April 24 through Monday, April 27, 1998.
The list of confirmed participants for the International Milosz Festival includes:
* Two Nobel Laureates: Milosz and Ireland's Seamus Heaney (1995 Nobel Prize winner)
* Two U.S. Poet Laureates, Robert Pinsky (Current) and Robert Hass (1995)
* Three Pulitzer Prize-winning authors: Jack Miles (God: A Biography, 1996), Philip Levine (The Simple Truth, 1995), and W.S. Merwin (The Carrier of Ladders, 1971)
* Literary critic Helen Vendler
* Adam Michnik, leader, with Lech Walesa, of Solidarity and editor of Poland's largest daily newspaper, Gazeta Wyborczya
Czeslaw Milosz served in the Polish Resistance during World War II, editing anti-Nazi books and pamphlets. He published his first book of poems, Poem of the Frozen Time in 1933. Among Milosz's many volumes of poetry are Collected Poems 1931-1987, and most recently Facing the River. Fellow Nobel Laureate Joseph Brodsky called Milosz "One of the greatest poets of our time, perhaps the greatest."
The festival has been organized by Claremont McKenna College literature professor Robert Faggen. Professor Faggen is a widely-published author, editor, and frequent contributor to the Los Angeles Times Book Review and the Paris Review. Among his recent books is Striving Towards Being: The Letters of Thomas Merton and Czeslaw Milosz.
All events are free and open to the public. Seating is limited, and no reservations are required. All events are on campus at the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum, 385 E. Eighth Street in Claremont.
The media is invited to all events. Interviews with conference participants may be arranged by calling Professor Faggen (909) 607-3005.
Claremont McKenna College is a highly selective independent liberal arts college educating leaders in business and public affairs. CMC enrolls nearly 1,000 students and is a member of The Claremont Colleges.