Irish-American poet, essayist, and fiction writer Thomas Lynch will continue the Writers in the Library series on February 11.
Lynch will be reading from his work at 7:00 p.m. in the Hodges Library Auditorium. The reading is free and open to the public.
He has written five books of poetry and three collections of essays. His works often deal with his Irish heritage or his work as a funeral director in the small town of Milford, Michigan. His book The Undertaking—Life Studies from the Dismal Trade won an American Book Award and was a National Book Award finalist.
His work has appeared in the Atlantic, the New York Times, the Times of London, the New Yorker, the Paris Review and elsewhere.
His latest book, The Sin-Eater: A Breviary, is a collection of twenty-four poems with twenty-four lines each. They represent hours in the life of an Irish man named Argyle.
Lynch has been the subject of two award-winning documentaries. PBS Frontline’s The Undertaking was about his work as a funeral director. Cathal Black’s Learning Gravity, produced by the BBC, was about Lynch’s life.
He is a frequent guest speaker at universities around the country and in Europe and Australia.
He divides the rest of his time between Milford and Moveen, County Clare, Ireland.
Writers in the Library is sponsored by UT Libraries and the Creative Writing Program in association with the John C. Hodges Better English Fund. For more information contact Marilyn Kallet, director of the Creative Writing Program (mkallet@utk.edu), or Christopher Hebert, writer in residence at UT Libraries (chebert3@utk.edu).
For more information about Thomas Lynch, visit thomaslynch.com.
Upcoming Writers in the Library events will feature:
- February 25: Valerie Laken, author of the novel Dream House and the short story collection Separate Kingdoms.
- March 11: T Cooper, novelist and author of Real Man Adventures.
- April 8: Adam Prince, a UT graduate and author of the short story collection The Beautiful Wishes of Ugly Men.
- April 15: Poets Marilyn Kallet and Arthur Smith, both UT English professors.
- April 25: Winners of UT’s creative writing awards.
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C O N T A C T :
Amy Blakely (865-974-5034, amy.blakely@tennessee.edu)
Holly Gary (865-974-2225, hgary@utk.edu)