THE RUNNER'S ALMANAC and SEER | A Busboys and Poets Books Presentation

The Runner’s Almanac

This intimate and haunting collection is a love song, a soliloquy, a work of praise, a call to arms, an offering of abundance. There's an urgency to The Runner's Almanac: what's inside the poet must come out. These are poems of gusto, of movement-walking, jogging, striding, hopping-toward love, inevitably. Amirthanayagam is a poet of plurality who savors how a poem gets out of hand, bursts its banks, spills into the mind of the reader. I think of Amirthanayagam, that sharp and tender poetic voice of his, as a village elder, a guide, a truth-teller. But he's the elder that will hold your feet to the fire and not let you forget. More than ever, in The Runner's Almanac, one feels his "purpose / even clearer, to dedicate what / remains of breath, love and work / to spread the word of poetry." –John Wall Barger, author of The Elephant of Silence: Essays on Poetics and Cinema

Seer

Indran Amirthanayagam's Seer is a multi-lingual, multi- coastal, multi-dimensional poetic record of a time in our collective history when our potential human demise loomed large and when the only way to save ourselves seemed to be separation and isolation. In this new collection, Amirthanayagam documents--with his evocative imagery and generous lyricism--our fears, hopes and dreams during a dark time. Through gustatory cellular tableaus, questions and meditations, this language soars, challenges and invites.

"In his generous, and richly visual new collection, Seer, Indran Amirthanayagam delves into 'the wound of departure', passing back through his childhood exile to London in order to recover his Tamil heritage. Seer thus creates a bridge between two rich but strikingly different cultures." –Fiona Sampson

Indran Amirthanayagam is joining us on the Busboys stage alongside literary activist and author E. Ethelbert Miller to read from these two collections and share more about the experiences that inspired them. Copies of the book will be available for purchase during and after the event, and Amirthanayagam will be signing following the program.

This event is free and open to all. Our program begins at 6:00 pm, and will be followed by an audience Q&A. Copies of THE RUNNER’S ALMANAC and SEER will be available for purchase before and after the event. Please note that this event is in person and will not be livestreamed. 

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Indran Amirthanayagam (Colombo, Ceylon) is a poet, translator, musician, editor, diplomat and host of The Poetry Channel. He writes and translates into English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Haitian Creole. He has published 22 collections of poetry and received grants from the Foundation for the Contemporary Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, U.S/Mexico Fund for Culture, The Macdowell Colony and Emergent Seed. The Elephants of Reckoning received the Paterson Poetry Prize. In music, he has produced the album Ran-kont Dout and They Died Not In Vain. He is editor of Beltway Editions and The Beltway Poetry Quarterly. His selected work in Spanish, Isleño, was published by R.I.L.Editores (2021).

Indran Amirthanayagam (Colombo, Ceilán) es poeta, traductor, músico, editor, diplomático y animador de The Poetry Channel. Escribe y traduce en inglés, español, francés, portugués y creole haitiano. Ha publicado 22 poemarios y recibido bolsas de Foundation for the Contemporary Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, U.S/Mexico Fund for Culture, The Macdowell Colony y Emergent Seed. The Elephants of Reckoning recibió el Premio Paterson de Poesía. En el terreno de la música, ha producido el disco Rankont Dout y They Died Not In Vain. Es editor de Beltway Editions y de The Beltway Poetry Quarterly. Su obra selecta en español, Isleño fue editado por R.I.L.Editores (2021). 

E. Ethelbert Miller is a literary activist and author of two memoirs and several poetry collections. He hosts the WPFW morning radio show On the Margin with E. Ethelbert Miller and hosts and produces The Scholars on UDC-TV which received a 2020 Telly Award. Miller is Associate Editor and a columnist for The American Book Review. He was given a 2020 congressional award from Congressman Jamie Raskin in recognition of his literary activism, awarded the 2022 Howard Zinn Lifetime Achievement Award by the Peace and Justice Studies Association, and named a 2023 Grammy Nominee Finalist for Best Spoken Word Poetry Album. Miller’s latest book is the little book of e published by City Point Press. Recently Miller was awarded the Furious Flower Lifetime Achievement Award.

Host or Publisher Busboys and Poets