2007 T.S. Eliot prize winning poet, Carol V. Davis to speak and have book signing at Avenue 50 Studio

"Into the Arms of Pushkin"

Carol V. Davis is the winner of the 2007 T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry sponsored by Truman State University Press, Kirkland, Mo. Davis’s winning collection, Into the Arms of Pushkin, was inspired by her experiences in Russia as a Fulbright Scholar.  Ms. Davis is the granddaughter of Jewish immigrants from Russia.

Davis’s poems explore a variety of issues that she encountered overseas, including the effects of language barriers and the isolation and loneliness that can result. The collection was also inspired by her children as she witnessed their own struggles and successes assimilating with a different culture. One such poem, The Violin Teacher, was written after Davis observed a music lesson her son was taking.

The judge for the T.S. Eliot Prize, Alberto Rios, commented on the collection, “Showing us what this particular life in Russia feels like makes it our world, even when the speaker struggles to draw meaning from confusion or frustration…Finding meaning—a continual act of translation and its failure in so many things—propels the poems in this book.”

Davis expressed that her Fulbright experience was as personally rewarding as it was professionally, “The role of a poet in Russia is so different than in the U.S. It is a very respected profession there and that had a tremendous impact psychologically.” During her Fulbright grants to Russia Davis taught modern Jewish literature in 1996-1997, and returned in fall 2005 to teach contemporary American literature.

Into the Arms of Pushkin was selected from more than 500 entries to receive the T.S. Eliot prize. Davis was awarded $2,000 and the publication of her book, in hard- and paper-back editions, in fall 2007.

Book may be purchased at time of signing.

November 11, 2007 starting at 2:00 pm