Stephen F. Austin State University

NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS - The public is invited to hear celebrated German poet Uwe Kolbe read his recent poem, "The Source of Prussia," and other selected works at 7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 11, in the downstairs gallery of The Art Center @ the Old Opera House, 329 E. Main. The reading is a presentation of the Stephen F. Austin State University Department of Modern Languages.

Charles Jones, SFA professor of art, will present the poet with an illustrated, dual-language edition of the poem prepared and printed by LaNana Creek Press for this event, and Scott Shattuck, director of the SFA School of Theater, will read the English-language versions of Kolbe's poems.

Dr. Louise Stoehr of SFA's Department of Modern Languages invited Kolbe to give the reading.

"Uwe Kolbe is one of the foremost poets of his generation. It is a real privilege to have him visit us here," Stoehr said. "Informed by his personal biography, Kolbe's poetic vision offers the American audience unique perspectives ranging from German literary tradition to observations about everyday life to American literature."

Kolbe, who was born in East Germany in 1957 and grew up several hundred meters east of the Berlin Wall (erected in August 1961), witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 while he was writer-in-residence at the University of Texas in Austin.

"One of Kolbe's earlier collections of poems, 'Born into,' describes how many of the poet's generation felt about the communist East German state," Stoehr said. "As Routledge's 'Who's Who in Twentieth-Century World Poetry' explains, '[t]he skepticism and irony of his poems caused difficulties with the authorities. Consequently, Kolbe left East Germany during the mid-1980s on a long-term visa.'"

Kolbe, a current resident of Berlin, directed the Studio Literature and Theater at the University of TŸbingen (Germany) from 1997 until early 2004. He is serving this fall semester as the Max Kade Writer-in-Residence at Oberlin College in Ohio.

Admission to the reading is free.

For more information, please call Stoehr at (936) 468-2167.