Poetry Reading and Book Signing by Prof. C. E. J. Simons on October 6
Prof. Simons will read from his new collection of poems, One More Civil Gesture, as well as from some of his favourite modern and contemporary poets, including W. B. Yeats and Geoffrey Hill. He will also discuss the influence of classical Japanese poetry
Please join the poetry reading and lecture by Professor C. E. J. Simons of the International Christian University on his latest book One More Civil Gesture at the Roppongi Hills Club.
The poems in One More Civil Gesture, the first full collection by C. E. J. Simons, examine familiar subjects—animal life, the seasons, family, myth, and well-known Shakespeare plays—from British-Japanese intercultural perspectives. Simons wrote much of the book in Japan, where he has lived since 2006.
Simons’s work is strongly influenced by Japanese culture, language, and poetic form. The poems in this book follow in the tradition of modern British poets who lived and wrote in Japan, including D. J. Enright and Anthony Thwaite. Many of the poems demonstrate symbolic relationships between everyday objects and ideas from Japanese culture—tatami, uni, onsen, kabuki, and tsuyu—and foreign landscapes and mythologies. Simons uses a mixture of Western and Japanese poetic forms in English, and his work exhibit exciting innovations in both styles.
The book of poems, One More Civil Gesture, will be available for purchase at the event (1,500 yen per copy), and Professor Simons is happy to sign copies.
DATE and TIME: October 6th (Tuesday) 19:00pm to 21:00pm (Doors open at 18:30pm)
PLACE: Roppongi Hills Club
Please see the direction at http://www.roppongihillsclub.com/visitor/dfw/en/common/pdf/map.pdf
ADMISSION: 3000 yen per person including exquisite buffet dinner. Cash bar available.
RESERVATION: Please make a reservation using the form right on the side of this page.
Please contact Yukari Fujita at veritas@fa.catv-yokohama.ne.jp if you have any question or inquiry.
C. E. J. (Christopher) Simons is Senior Associate Professor of British Literature at International Christian University, Tokyo. He holds a D.Phil in British Romanticism from Lincoln College, Oxford, and in 2003 he held the Harper-Wood Studentship in Creative Writing at St John’s College Cambridge. He has published on Wordsworth, Shakespeare, Yeats, Emily Dickinson, and Sylvia Plath, most recently contributing a chapter to the Oxford Handbook of William Wordsworth (Oxford University Press, 2015). He has previously published two poetry pamphlets with wordwolf press – Progress Bar (2010) and No Distinguishing Features (2011) – and his poems have won prizes in UK competitions, including the Cardiff International Poetry Competition and the Wigtown Competition. His criticism and poetry have appeared in publications including the Independent, Isis, Magma, Oxford Poetry, PN Review, and The Times Literary Supplement.