A.E. Stallings

Past Event: Monday, November 13, 2017

At McCaw Hall — Nesholm Family Lecture Hall

This series is sponsored by Charles B. & Barbara Wright

One of the strongest talents to emerge in recent years.

— Poetry Magazine

A. E. Stallings is not a perfect poet but a poet of perfection, with the patience and courage to bring to her poems what American poetry so rarely knows how to give, and American readers hardly dare to receive; lapidary finish of both form and reading.

— The Yale Review

The most gifted formalist of her generation […] There are haters of such pleasures, to be sure; they are legion. But I think the poetry of A. E. Stallings will outlast them.

— The Hudson Review

Poet and Greek translator A. E. Stallings is known for her mastery of structured forms and writing that mines the classical world to craft dialogues between the ancient culture of her adopted homeland and contemporary concerns.

“Through her technical dexterity and graceful fusion of content and form,” writes the MacArthur Foundation Selection Committee, “Stallings is revealing the timelessness of poetic expression and antiquity’s relevance for today.”

Stallings has published three books of poetry, Archaic Smile which won the Richard Wilbur Award; Hapax; and Olives. Her verse translation of Lucretius’s epic-length treatise on the nature of reality, The Nature of Things, was rendered into rhyming fourteeners and called “one of the most extraordinary classical translations of recent times” by Peter Stothard of the Times Literary Supplement.

She has received a translation grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and fellowships from United States Artists, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation. She is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She speaks and lectures widely on a variety of topics, and has been a regular faculty member at the West Chester Poetry Conference and the Sewanee Summer Writers’ Conference.

Having studied in Athens, Georgia, she now lives in Athens, Greece with her husband, the journalist John Psaropoulos, and their two argonauts, Jason and Atalanta.

Selected Works:

Poetry

Archaic Smile (1999)
Hapax (2006)
Olives (2012)

Translations

The Nature of Things (2007)
The Word Exchange: Anglo-Saxon Poems in Translation (2010)

Video

PBS News Hour: A.E. Stallings Reads "On a Greek Proverb"

“Sometimes when I’m feeling weepy, you propose a theory: / Nostalgia and tear gas have the same acrid smack.”

Ted Talk: The Courage of Poetry

“When we’re afraid we, want to control everything around us. But when we create, we have to give up the illusion of control.”

Event Details

McCaw Hall — Nesholm Family Lecture Hall

321 Mercer St
Seattle, WA 98109

View directions.

This event will be held in the Nesholm Family Lecture Hall. The Lecture Hall is located in the lower level of Marion Oliver McCaw Hall at Seattle Center. The entrance to the hall is on the north side of the building and east of the main entrance; it directly faces Mercer St. and the door is under the bridge to the Mercer Street Garage.

By Car

From I-5
Take Mercer Street exit (exit 167) and go straight onto Mercer Street westbound. Turn right onto 4th Avenue. Turn left to park in the Seattle Center Mercer Street Garage.
From Aurora/Hwy 99 Northbound
Take the Western Avenue exit. Continue straight on Western Avenue. Turn right onto Battery Street. Turn left onto 1st Avenue. Turn right on Mercer Street. Continue down Mercer Street to drop off patrons directly in front of McCaw Hall, or turn left on 3rd or 4th Avenues to park in the Seattle Center Mercer Street Garage.
From Aurora/Hwy 99 Southbound
Exit right on Roy Street. Turn left on 3rd Avenue North. Turn left to park in the Seattle Center Mercer Street Garage or proceed to the corner of 3rd Avenue and Mercer Street, turn left and proceed immediately to the far right lane to drop off patrons directly in front of McCaw Hall.

By Bus
Bus routes with Seattle Center stops include: 1, 2, 3, 4, 13, 15, 16, 18, 19, 24, 33, and 82. For more information about the routes nearest you, call Metro’s 24-hour Rider Information hotline at (206) 553-3000 or visit Metro online.

Parking
Parking is available at the Mercer Street Garage, conveniently located across the street from McCaw Hall. A covered skybridge provides easy access between level C of the garage and McCaw Hall.

Other garages and parking options are:

Fisher Plaza Garage, located in the KOMO Plaza on 4th Avenue N, between Broad St and John St. The entrance is at 451 John St. The quickest way to get to McCaw Hall from here is to walk across the Seattle Center campus, starting from the Space Needle. SAL offers a $5 voucher for this garage. Vouchers may be picked up at SAL’s box office or info table.
5th Avenue North Garage, located at the corner of 5th Avenue and Harrison Street. This is the first garage you will encounter after exiting I-5 and turning onto Harrison Street. It is a 3-block walk to McCaw Hall from this garage.
Surface lots are available on either side of Mercer Street between 3rd and 1st Avenues.
Southwest Seattle Center garages, for those willing and able to make the short walk across the Seattle Center campus, there are garages located on 1st Avenue North between Thomas and John Streets (south of KeyArena), at the corner of Warren Avenue North and Denny Way (adjacent to the church), and on 2nd Avenue North and Denny Way (adjacent to Pacific Science Center).

All of our venues have accessible seating and listening devices available. Click here for more information about accessibility and ADA services at McCaw Hall.

Please contact us at sal@lectures.org or 206.621.2230 x10 for more details and to let us know you’re coming so we can better accommodate your needs.

Seating Chart