Andrei Codrescu, National Public Radio (NPR) Commentator and Social Critic, Visits the Berkshires for Talk and Book Signing
Andrei Codrescu of NPRÂ’s All Things Considered comes to the Berkshires to present the musings of his latest spiritual and cultural journey to Israel, Romania, and the American South.
Lenox, MA (PRWEB) April 29, 2005
Andrei Codrescu, NPR commentator, social critic, and poet comes to the Berkshires as part of the Voices from the Edge speakers series, sponsored by What Is Enlightenment? magazine. On Wednesday, May 18, 7:30pm, at Foxhollow Forum, Route 7, Lenox, MA. Tickets: $12, students $6, available online at mktix. com and at the door. The evening will include a talk followed by Q&A and a reception/book signing with Mr. Codrescu. For more information, log on to wie. org/voices or call 413.637.6000. Reservations strongly recommended since space is limited.
Andrei Codrescu is available for interviews through Hope Cohen 413.637.6060.
Andrei Codrescu has gained a national reputation as a candid and shrewd social critic, willing to probe into the heart of a society and its values. In his upcoming talk, “The Living Conditions of the Gods: A Journey to Israel, the Balkans, and the American South,” he focuses his keen eye and sharp wit on the cultural attitudes in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and the American South toward two of his passions, God and poetry. The talk will be followed by a reception and a book signing of Codrescu’s latest novel, Wakefield.
Codrescu brings a poet’s sensibility and an outsider’s clarity of vision to his observations. His ability to take a society’s pulse, to capture the zeitgeist, came to national attention in the 1993 feature film, Road Scholar. In an old red Cadillac convertible that he had just mastered driving, he chronicled his own “Kerouac-esque” journey across America presenting the vast and varied contemporary American experience from his unique perspective. Funny, moving, and challenging, Road Scholar is a thought-provoking look at the “soulscape of America.”
His most recent novel, Wakefield is “a comedic romp with the breadth and scope of Dante, Milton, Goethe, and Mark Twain.” It’s a dazzling journey in which the reader emerges with “a revitalized sense of the astonishing mysteries of everyday life in the here and now.” In his most current volume of poetry, it was today, Codrescu expresses both his light-hearted spirit and his more serious examinations of subjects such as aging, politics, mass media, and consumerism.
Throughout his career, in his NPR commentaries, his poetry, and his novels, Codrescu has revealed a soul in search of broader horizons. With liberating delight, he transgresses the boundaries of language, culture, and religion, writing some of the most wry, penetrating, and creative cultural critiques of our time.
As a regular contributor to the popular NPR newsmagazine, All Things Considered, and author of numerous novels, memoirs, anthologies, and more than twenty volumes of poetry, Codrescu has received a bounty of awards and honors for his writings, including the George Foster Peabody Award, the ACLU Freedom of Speech Award, the Big Table Poetry Award, the Towson State University Literature Prize, and the General Electric Foundation Poetry Prize. He has also been awarded National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships for poetry, editing, and radio. Currently, he is the MacCurdy Distinguished Professor of English at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and editor of the literary journal Exquisite Corpse.
Codrescu was born in Sibiu, Romania, and emigrated to the US in 1966.
For more information about Andrei CodrescuÂ’s rare Berkshire appearance, visit the Voices from the Edge website at wie. org/voices or call Foxhollow Forum at 413.637.6000.
For more information about Andrei Codrescu, visit his website at codrescu. com.
“Codrescu manages to be brilliant and insightful, tough and seductive about American culture….” – The New York Times
“His command of language is superb, his writing beautifully original, and his insights piercing.” - Harper’s
“He is a witty travel guide with a serious interest in the unique and varied ways in which Americans express their spirituality in a materialistic culture.” - Spirituality & Health Magaine
What Is Enlightenment? magazine (WIE) was founded by Andrew Cohen in 1991. It is published quarterly by What Is Enlightenment? Press, a nonprofit, educational organization dedicated to a revolution in human consciousness and culture. WIE also sponsors the Voices from the Edge speakers series which offers an annual calendar of lectures and seminars featuring innovative thinkers and prominent leaders in various fields of expertise. What Is Enlightenment? has an international readership of 75,000 and growing. wie. org
Foxhollow Forum, the international base for Voices from the Edge, is an elegant turn-of-the-century public venue. Drawing to the podium those pathfinders who are expressing the visions and values of an emerging global culture, Foxhollow Forum also functions as a conference center for events related to the evolutionary work of Andrew Cohen, founder of What Is Enlightenment? magazine and the Voices speakers series. andrewcohen. org
Submitted by Hope Cohen for What Is Enlightenment? magazine and Voices from the Edge
PO Box 2360, Lenox, MA 01240
413.637.6060, 413.281.4888 (cell)
"dedicated to a revolution of human consciousness and culture"
Wie. org
[digital images available upon request]
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