Reading by William Wenthe

Acclaimed poet William Wenthe will read from his latest collection, The Gentle Art (LSU Press, 2023). The poems in the book move between the life of the painter James McNeill Whistler and a poetic version of the author, who is at once inspired and disturbed by Whistler. The present-day author sheds light on Whistler’s artistic vocation and the beauty of his paintings, most notably the liminal London riverscapes that he named Nocturnes, yet recoils at the cost of Whistler’s devotion to art: lovers abandoned, friends turned into enemies, his children given away to adoption. Wenthe will be introduced by Boris Dralyuk, Presidential Professor of English and Creative Writing.