Concord Poetry at the Library Series presents Jana Prikryl

In celebration of National Poetry Month, the Concord Poetry at the Library Series will host poet and essayist Jana Prikryl, author of a New York Times Best Poetry Book of The Year and a senior editor at New York Review of Books. The event will take place at the Main Library (129 Main Street) from 3:00 - 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, April 29.

Prikryl will read from her acclaimed debut collection, The After Party (Tim Duggan Books) and talk about her writing practice and why the “complicated truths” of place, family, and selfhood can only be held and scrutinized through the language of poetry with its prisms of clarity and light. This free event that includes book signings and light refreshments is sponsored by The Friends of the Library.

Born in Communist Czechoslovakia, but raised in Canada, Prikryl earned a BA in English at the University of Toronto, and lived in Dublin before moving to New York City. She holds an MA in cultural criticism from New York University. Her poems appear widely in magazines and journals such as The New Yorker, the London Review of Books, The Paris Review, The New York Review of Books, and The Baffler, and her essays on photography and film appear regularly in The Nation and The New York Review of Books.

The After Party poems journey across borders and eras, from cold war Central Europe to present-day New York City, from ancient Rome to New World suburbs, disclosing the tensions in our inherited identities.

Praise runs high for the collection. “Remarkable…Unusually vivid…Brilliant and funny…A sensory autobiography that examines tragic material with a friendly scrutiny…” - Dan Chiasson of The New Yorker. “Nimble, even acrobatic, cutting but never slashing, always clever but never merely so, Prikryl’s poems belong to the great line of wit; they make the intolerables of this life–our islanded existence, our mortality–bearable,“ - Stephanie Burt, poet and literary critic. “Potent and pleasing… . A poet’s debut elevates the everyday and nods to influences from the past.” - Joel Brouwer, The New York Times Book Review.

Visit Jana Prikryl’s website for links to poems, essays, and more praise of The After Party.