Please join us for a special evening honoring the life and work of poet, essayist, translator and teacher Lyn Hejinian (May 17, 1941–February 24, 2024). Hejinian is perhaps best known as a founding member of the Language Writing group of poets and for her book My Life, which revolutionized the form of verse memoir, as well as for her essays in the brilliant collection The Language of Inquiry, which introduced readers to the revolutionary concept of “the rejection of closure.” Lyn Hejinian was also a beloved teacher, generous force for poetry, activist and community member. Hejinian’s oeuvre is truly remarkable and her influence on generations of writers cannot be overstated. A number of poets will read from Lyn’s work, offer personal remembrances, and collectively engage with her poetry, critical writing, translation, publishing, and extraordinary presence. This event is both for readers new to Lyn’s work as well as for her many devoted readers and friends — all are welcome.

Charles Bernstein met Lyn Hejinian almost fifty years ago. His most recent book is The Kinds of Poetry I Want: Essays & Comedies, from the University of Chicago Press. He is a professor, emeritus, at Penn.

Laynie Browne‘s recent books of poetry include: Everyone & Her Resemblances (Pamenar, 2024), Intaglio Daughters (Ornithopter 2023), and Practice Has No Sequel (Pamenar 2023). She co-edited the anthology I’ll Drown My Book: Conceptual Writing by Women (Les Figues Press) and edited the anthology A Forest on Many Stems: Essays on The Poet’s Novel (Nightboat). Honors include a Pew Fellowship, the National Poetry Series Award, and the Contemporary Poetry Series Award. She teaches at the University of Pennsylvania.

Pattie McCarthy is the author of seven books of poetry, most recently Wifthing (Apogee Press, 2021), and a dozen chapbooks, most recently extraordinary tides (Omnidawn Publishing, 2023). A former Pew Fellow in the Arts, she is a non-tenure-track professor at Temple University where she is currently the Assistant Director of the MFA in Creative Writing.

Jena Osman Jena Osman’s first full-length collection of poems, The Character, was selected for the 1998 Barnard New Women Poets Prize by Lyn Hejinian. She has published six books since then, as well as A Very Large Array: Selected Poems. She co-edited the journal Chain with Juliana Spahr from 1994-2005; they were honored to have published excerpts from Hejinian’s A Border Comedy, as well as collaborations between Hejinian and Travis Ortiz, Joan Retallack, and Emilie Clark (which can be read at https://jacket2.org/reissues/chain).

Ron Silliman has written and edited forty books of poetry, critical theory, and memoir, most recently The L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E Letters: Selected 1970s Correspondence of Bruce Andrews, Charles Bernstein, and Ron Silliman.

Claire Marie Stancek is a writer, editor, and educator. Her poetry collections include wyrd] bird (Omnidawn, 2020), Oil Spell (Omnidawn, 2018), and MOUTHS (Noemi, 2017). With Daniel Benjamin, she co-edited Active Aesthetics: Contemporary Australian Poetry (Tuumba/Giramondo, 2016). With the late Lyn Hejinian and Jane Gregory, she co-founded Nion Editions, a chapbook press that she and Jane now co-edit. Claire Marie earned a B.A. from the University of Toronto and holds a Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of California, Berkeley. She lives in Philadelphia.

Syd Zolf’s most recent books are No One’s Witness: A Monstrous Poetics (Duke, 2021) and a selected poetry, Social Poesis (WLU Press, 2019). Honors also include a Pew Fellowship in the Arts, a Trillium Book Award for Poetry, and finalist for several other prizes. They teach at the University of Pennsylvania.