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Picturing Our Past Work, Families and Public Policy series scheduled to begin Sept. 9 Faculty and graduate students from this and other St. Louis-area universities with an interest in topics relating to labor, households, health care, law and social welfare are invited to take part in a series of Monday brown-bag luncheon seminars to be held biweekly through December. Full story More Stories
				British poet laureate Motion to speak Sept. 10 By Liam Otten Andrew Motion, poet laureate of Britain and also a noted biographer, will speak on "Literary Biography" at 8 p.m. Sept. 10 for The Writing Program Reading Series. In addition, Motion will read from his poetry at 8 p.m. Sept. 12. Both events are free and open to the public and take place in Hurst Lounge, Duncker Hall, Room 201. A book signing will follow each reading, and copies of Motion's works will be available for purchase. Andrew Motion Who: Poet laureate of Britain, noted biographer Where: Hurst Lounge, Duncker Hall Room 201 When: 8 p.m. Sept. 10 Cost: Free and open to the public Winner of the Whitbread Prize for biography, Motion -- who will serve a weeklong residency as the Fannie Hurst Professor of Creative Literature in The Writing Program in the Department of English in Arts & Sciences -- is the author of The Lamberts: George, Constance & Kit (1986); Philip Larkin: A Writer's Life (1933); and Keats (1997). Most recently, he created the "probable memoir" Wainewright the Poisoner: The Confessions of Thomas Griffiths Wainewright (2000). Motion has published eight books of poetry, including Selected Poems 1976-1997 (1998); Salt Water (1997); The Price of Everything (1994); Natural Causes (1987); Secret Narratives (1983) and The Pleasure Steamers (1977). His novels include Famous for the Creatures (1991) and The Pale Companion (1989). Of Salt Water, poet and critic Bernard O'Donoghue wrote, "Motion's greatest and most distinctive gift. . . is to look squarely at the world and describe it with a plain and unsentimental eloquence that makes worldly value seem all the more questionable. The more you read this book, the more clearly it emerges as a masterpiece of feeling and sensual evocation." Courtesy Photo Andrew Motion will speak at 8 p.m. Sept. 10 for The Writing Program Reading Series. Motion also will read from his poetry at 8 p.m. Sept. 12 and serve a weeklong residency as the Fannie Hurst Professor of Creative Literature in The Writing Program in the Department of English in Arts & Sciences. Motion was named poet laureate of Britain in 1999. Of this appointment, Motion said, "Although I'll be using my time as poet laureate to make things happen, I want to make sure I 'speak truth to power' as Hazlitt said. Poetry should never speak on behalf of power." Born in London, Motion earned adoctorate in literature from University College, Oxford, and went on to direct Poetry Review and the poetry list at Chatto & Windus. He has written a critical study of The Poetry of Edward Thomas, published selections of the poetry of William Barnes and Thomas Hardy and, with Blake Morrison, edited the influential and controversial Penguin Book of Contemporary British Poetry (1982). Since 1995, he has been professor of creative writing in the School of English and American Studies at the University of East Anglia. For more information on the Washington University events, call 935-7130.

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