Tomaž Šalamun is final visiting writer

salamun-butler-vwsOn Tuesday, November  19, 7:30 PM in the Krannert Room of Clowes Hall, Slovenian avant-garde poet Tomaž Šalamun brings our fall Visiting Writers Series to a close. Author of over 30 books of poetry, translated to over 20 languages, Šalamun published his first book Poker at the tender age of 25. Perhaps more impressive, Šalamun was arrested at the tenderer age of 23, spending a few days in jail over his iconoclastic poem “Duma ’64,” in which he portrayed an important government official as a dead cat. Unsurprisingly, the official took umbrage.

Salamun has won a Pushcart Prize as well as the Jenko Prize and Slovenia’s Prešeren and Mladost Prizes. Now, I could give you more biography, but many moons ago Šalamun was helpful enough to publish autobiographical poem “History” in The Guardian. I haven’t read it, but I’m sure it will be both illuminating as well as mightily accurate. Here goes:

Tomaž Šalamun is a monster.
Tomaž Šalamun is a sphere rushing through the air.
He lies down in twilight, he swims in twilight.
People and I, we both look at him amazed,
we wish him well, maybe he is a comet.
Maybe he is punishment from the gods,
the boundary stone of the world.
Maybe he is such a speck in the universe
that he will give energy to the planet
when oil, steel, and food run short.
He might only be a hump, his head
should be taken off like a spider’s.
But something would then suck up
Tomaž Šalamun, possibly the head.
Possibly he should be pressed between
glass, his photo should be taken.
He should be put in formaldehyde, so children
would look at him as they do foetuses,
protei, and mermaids.
Next year, he’ll probably be in Hawaii
or in Ljubljana. Doorkeepers will scalp
tickets. People walk barefoot
to the university there. The waves can be
a hundred feet high. The city is fantastic,
shot through with people on the make,
the wind is mild.
But in Ljubljana people say: look!
This is Tomaž Šalamun, he went to the store
with his wife Marushka to buy some milk.
He will drink it and this is history.

So as you can quite plainly see, this is a man whose reading you should not miss, lest you wish to incur the wrath of the personification of punishment from the gods. Plus, he apparently is a fossil fuel, so come listen to some great poetry and fill up your tank. Luckily for you, when you come see Tomaž Šalamun on Tuesday, November 19 at 7:30 PM in the Krannert Room of Clowes Hall, the doorkeepers will not scalp tickets. In fact, the event is, as always, free and open to the public.