Jon Cook, visiting Hurst Professor, to speak on craft of poetry April 13

April 3, 2006 -- Jon Cook, the visiting Fannie Hurst Professor of Creative Literature in Washington University's Writing Program in Arts & Sciences, will speak on the craft of poetry at 8 p.m. Thursday, April 13.

The event — part of The Writing Program's spring Reading Series — is free and open to the public and takes place in Hurst Lounge, Room 201, Duncker Hall, on the university's Hilltop Campus. Duncker Hall is located at the northwest corner of Brookings Quadrangle, near the intersection of Brookings and Hoyt drives. For more information, call (314) 935-7130.

Cook is the author of several books, including Romanticism and Ideology (1981) and William Hazlitt: Selected Writings (1991). His most recent volume, Poetry in Theory (2004), reflects a long-standing interest in modern poetry and poetics. Current projects include the forthcoming Hazlitt in Love, a biographical work on writing and love, as well as a volume on 20th Century poetry and poetics.

Cook is a professor of literature at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, where he directs the Centre for Creative and Performing Arts. He also serves as editor of the literary journal Pretext and on the international advisory board of the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis.

Cook has published numerous essays on romantic poetry, cultural analysis and the relation between theory and practice in creative writing. These include, most recently, essays on British national identity and on the idea of creative writing as a form of research.