Join us for a book launch of a unique international poetry project: “A Quiet Little Idea” Salem–Nanjing Poetry Exchange. Salem, a city of many notable things, was an early center of U.S.–China trade, and also “is a city of poetry and poets,” notes J.D. Scrimgeour, Poet Laureate. In 2022, Scrimgeour united these two traditions by convening a group of much-published local poets with a group of students from China majoring in English at Salem State University, where he is a professor. The interaction yielded a collection of poems in English that were translated into Chinese by the students. A Quiet Little Idea: Salem–Nanjing Poetry Exchange, edited by Xinyi Guo (郭昕怡), Siyan Liu (刘思言), and J.D. Scrimgeour (史明格). This is the sixth in a series of poetry chapbooks published by Derby Wharf Light Box.

Xinyi Guo (郭昕怡), Siyan Liu (刘思言), will be attending the book launch live via Zoom from China, and J.D. Scrimgeour (史明格) will be hosting the in-person event in the main reading room at the Salem Athenaeum. Several poets and translators who contributed to the project will be in attendance.

The 40-page chapbook includes poems with local settings by Scrimgeour; M.P. Carver, director of the Massachusetts Poetry Festival; film-maker and poet Kevin Carey; Colleen Michaels, founder of the Improbable Places Poetry Tour; the much-admired Kali Lightfoot; and several up-and-coming poets: Patricia Callan, JD Debris, and Gregory Glenn. Also included is a poem by the legendary Salem-born eccentric poet Malcolm Miller (1930–2014). The Chinese translators, from Nanjing Normal University, include editors Xinyi Guo and Siyan Liu plus students Wenhui Chen, Haohao Cheng, Ran Cheng, Xiaoyi Fan, Chenyun Jin, Tianqing Li, Ruizhi Qian, Kaiyan Shao, Yanjing Sheng, Yiran Wang, Yuxi Wang, Jiaqi Yang, Yixing Zhao, Shimin Zhou, and Yihan Zhu.

The unique chapbook design features one half in English and the other half in Chinese—two complete booklets in one. A reader simply flips the book over to go from one language to the other—the English and Chinese pages correspond. To order A Quiet Little Idea: Salem–Nanjing Poetry Exchange, please visit the Derby Wharf Light Box website, derbywharflightbox.com.

Free

This is a hybrid event.
Zoom link will be sent to all registrants an hour before the program starts.

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