Event

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After Julia Bloch introduced him as one of her “favorite humans,” poet Rob Halpern captivated an Arts Cafe audience with a reading of his evocative, surreal and sometimes humorous work. He shared poems based on dreams and autopsy reports, then moved into a series he described as “lyrical.” The evening concluded with Halpern fielding questions on political content in his work and his poems’ relationship to their audience. Halpern reassured the audience that it’s okay for them to laugh at his poetry, and described his poetics as outlining a “politics of love.”

ROB HALPERN is the author of several books of poems including Rumored Place (Krupskaya 2004) and Disaster Suites (Palm Press 2009), which was recently translated into Dutch as Rampensuites as part of the Contemporary Poetry in Translation series published by Amsterdam’s literary arts foundation, Perdu. Music for Porn was published in 2012 (Nightboat Books) and Common Place just appeared from Ugly Duckling Presse. Together with Taylor Brady, Rob also co-authored the book length poem Snow Sensitive Skin (Atticus/Finch 2007, reissued by Displaced Press 2011). [———] Placeholder, a book length selection of his poetry and prose drawing from all these books, was recently published in the UK by Enitharmon. His critical essays can be found in Journal of Narrative Theory, Modernist Cultures, Chicago Review and online at The Claudius App. Currently, he’s translating Georges Perec’s early essays on aesthetics and politics, which appear in various publications, including Review of Contemporary Fiction and Paul Revere’s Horse. Rob lives between San Francisco and Ypsilanti, Michigan, where he teaches at Eastern Michigan University and Huron Valley Women’s Correctional Facility.