Have you ever read a poem without being forced to read it? Did you dread your high school’s poetry unit every spring? If so, this discussion is for you. Internationally recognized poet Matthew Zapruder wrote Why Poetry for the skeptical and the unenthused. His book argues that no special training or education is required to love poetry. To persuade us, he describes the first time a poem moved him, then weaves in personal stories about his upbringing in Washington, DC, and his development into a poet as he explains why anyone can understand and love a poem.
Poet, translator, professor and editor Matthew Zapruder was born in Washington, DC. in 1967. He earned a BA in Russian literature at Amherst College, an MA in Slavic languages and literature at the University of California, Berkeley, and an MFA in poetry at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he studied with Dara Wier, James Tate, and Agha Shahid Ali.
Zapruder is the author most recently of Father’s Day, Copper Canyon, 2019, and Why Poetry, a book of prose, Ecco/Harper Collins, 2017. He is editor at large at Wave Books, where he edits contemporary poetry, prose, and translations. From 2016-7 he held the annually rotating position of Editor of the Poetry Column for the New York Times Magazine. He teaches in the MFA and English Department at Saint Mary’s College of California. He also plays lead guitar in the rock band The Figments, a Western Massachusetts based band led by songwriter Thane Thomsen.
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