ADAM ZAGAJEWSKI

If we can accept the image of literature as a kind of magnetic field, then poetry and doubt are among its main forces. Poetry stands for the lyric force, for the ecstatic moment, for the strong conviction; doubt, for the movement of irony, of skepticism, of disbelief. The two principles either rush together or repel one another. They are rarely experienced in isolation. Mr.Zagajewski will present fragments from poetry by C. P. Cavafy, Paul Claudel, and Czeslaw Milosz, as well as aphorisms from La Rochefoucauld, Schopenhauer, and E. M. Cioran.

Adam Zagajewski, an associate professor in the University of Houston Creative Writing Program, teaches a graduate poetry workshop and a literature course every spring semester. His many books of poetry include Tremor, Canvas, and Mysticism for Beginners; Another Beauty is his recently published memoir. Mr. Zagajewski received Sweden's second annual Tomas Tranströmer Prize presented in 2000. He is a native of Poland and resides in Paris and Houston.