Lisa Fishman & Rick Meier
Speedboat Books — January 25, 2003
Rain Taxi Reading Series kicked off the new year with a fantastic reading by two young poets from Beloit, WI to a standing room only crowd in St. Paul's Speedboat Gallery. Keep your eyes and ears open for great things to come from these talented poets. Lisa Fishman's new book of poetry, Dear, Read, will knock your socks off. Rick Meier's first book, Terrain Vague, might possibly knock your pants off as well.
Free Verse: C. D. Wright
Walker Art Center — February 13, 2003
C. D. Wright captivated the audience with a searing reading of her lyrical text which accompanies photographs in One Big Self: Prisoners of Louisiana, a collaboration with photographer Deborah Luster.
Terri Ford
Rogue Buddha Gallery — March 5, 2003
Poet Terri Ford gave a boisterous and irreverent reading from her book, Why the Ships Are She, as well as new poems riffing on topics biological and illogical.
Free Verse: Bei Dao and Eliot Weinberger
Walker Art Center — April 3, 2003
A spellbound and enthusiastic audience enjoyed readings by essayist and translator Eliot Weinberger, who spoke about topics from the bird language of Papua New Guinea to the first Gulf War, and exiled Chinese poet Bei Dao, who read poems from his recent book Unlock and new poems translated that afternoon in collaboration with Eliot Weinberger! This event was webcast by the Walker Art Center and is archived at can be viewed here.
Joshua Beckman and Matthew Zapruder
Minnesota Center for Photography — April 18, 2003
These two young, prize-winning poets read to a standing-room-only audience on this rainy Spring night. Zapruder read from his new book American Linden as well as new poems. Beckman read a poem he wrote on the plane from Idaho along with a long poem from his book Something I Expected To Be Different. Thanks to the new Rain Taxi sound system, their voices rang strong and true above the swooshing cars on the street outside.
EMERGENT POETS
Soo Visual Arts Center — May 3, 2003
Four young poets read from their recently published books. Dan Beachy-Quick read from his lyrical book North True South Bright; Betsy Brown read “moving and merciless” poems from Year of Morphines; Aaron McCollough navigated the depths of fear in Welkin; and Peter Richards read darkly humorous poems from his second book Nude Siren. It was a great celebration of Rain Taxi Reading Series' Fifth Anniversary!
Arthur Sze
Weinstein Gallery — May 17, 2003
Arthur Sze returned to Minneapolis to celebrate Rain Taxi Reading Series' Fifth Anniversary with an elegant and intense reading, surrounded by Lynn Davis's photographs of China. Arthur read new poems as well as translations from The Silk Dragon.
Jane Miller
Walker Art Center — June 19, 2003
Jane Miller read in Gallery 7 Terrace overlooking the Minneapolis cityscape, reading all-new poems from her upcoming book A Palace of Pearls. Another stunning reading that ended the Spring 2003 Reading Series with a bang!
Free Verse: Vénus Khoury-Ghata and Marilyn Hacker
Walker Art Center — September 11, 2003
Just flown in from Paris, Marilyn Hacker and Vénus Khoury-Ghata read to a rapt audience. Hacker read from her book, Desesperanto: Poems 1999-2002. Khoury-Ghata read from She Says, reading poems in French with Hacker reading her English translations.
2003 TWIN CITIES BOOK FESTIVAL
September 27, 2003
With dozens of exhibitors from all walks of literary life—local presses, literary organizations, and literary journals—and a full day of activities and events for the whole family, the 2003 Twin Cities Book Festival was a resounding success. Special guests Nick Bantock, Charles Baxter, Kathe Koja, and Peter Kuper read from recent work to appreciative audiences. Children were treated to storybook readings by Lisa Westberg Peters, Nancy Carlson, Alison McGhee, Pang and Michelle Yang, as well as a puppet-making workshop with Galumph Interactive Theatre.
Free Verse: Gail Scott
Walker Art Center — October 9, 2003
Canadian writer Gail Scott read from the U.S. release of her work, My Paris, a fictive diary of a disillusioned visitor to the city of lights. This was Scott's first visit to Minneapolis, and we look forward to seeing more of her publications in the U.S.!
Ted Enslin and Michael Heller
Ruminator Books — October 12, 2003
A stirring reading by two eminent poets, Michael Heller read from his recent collection Exigent Futures: New and Selected Poems while Ted Enslin read from recent poem cycles and Then, and Now: Selected Poems, 1943-1993.
Brian Henry, Andrew Zawacki, and Ethan Paquin
October 18, 2003
Three young up-and-coming poets read from their work on a temperate October night. Brian Henry, author of three books of poetry, read from his latest book Graft. Andrew Zawacki read from his first book of poems, By Reason of Breakings. Ethan Paquin read from his recent book, Acumulus.
Free Verse: Peter Gizzi
Walker Art Center — November 6, 2003
Gizzi read from his visionary new work Some Values of Landscape and Weather, a volume which revives poetic architectures such as elegy, song, and litany to build “a comprehensive music” against a backdrop of political, social, and ethical values.
Elizabeth Robinson
Weinstein Gallery — November 23, 2003
Intrepid poetry lovers braved a blizzard to hear award-winning poet Elizabeth Robinson read from her books, including the recent winner of the Fence Modern Poets Prize, Apprehend, amidst multiple representations of pyramids in the Weinstein Gallery.
Free Verse: Jeff VanderMeer
Walker Art Center — December 4, 2003
Jeff VanderMeer introduced the rapt audience to the bizarre city of Ambergris in his multi-media presentation “An Introduction of Ambergris,” the subject of his novel City of Saints & Madmen. VanderMeer also treated the audience to an excerpt from a collection he edited entitled The Thackery T. Lambshead Guide to Eccentric and Discredited Diseases.