April 12, 2007

Slovenian writer on war and poetry

Slovenian writer Ales Debeljak — one of Eastern Europe’s leading poets and most prominent intellectuals — will discuss the relevance of poetry today and its ability to give voice to extreme situations that resist articulation when he delivers the Roberta Buffett Lecture April 19.

Debejak’s presentation, titled “War and Poetry,” will take place at 5 p.m. in the Guild Lounge on the first floor of Scott Hall. It celebrates the newly endowed Roberta Buffett Center for International and Comparative Studies.

In illuminating the conditions after the wars of Yugoslav succession that gave birth to Debeljak’s poetry collection titled “The City and the Child,” the author will lay the ground for a better appreciation of poems themselves that he will read in the second part of his presentation.

Debeljak — one of Eastern Europe’s leading poets and who earned a Ph.D. at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, has published numerous books of cultural criticism and poetry in Slovenian, his native tongue.

An alumna of Northwestern, Roberta Buffett Bialek created the Buffett Visiting Professorship in International Studies that brings to campus leading scholars from around the world to build Northwestern’s international relationships.