The Betsy Welcomes German Poet Jan Wagner
October 30 at 8 pm
The Betsy-South Beach
1440 Ocean Drive.
Miami Beach, FL
Renowned and critically acclaimed poet Jan Wagner will give a public poetry reading. This special evening, hosted by Miami poet, MacArthur Genius Award recipient Campbell McGrath, will include a special greeting from the German Consul General Eva Alexandra Countess Kendeffy. The event, which will be free and open to the public will take place in the hotel’s charming special event space, B Bar.
Wagner was born in Hamburg, Germany. He is a poet and translator of poetry from English to German, including the work of Charles Simic, James Tate, Simon Armitage, Jo Shapcott, Louis MacNeice, and Kevin Young. He studied English and American Studies in Hamburg, Dublin and Berlin. He has worked as a freelance reviewer for various newspapers such as Frankfurter Rundschau and Tagesspiegel. He co-published the international literature "box" DIE AUSSENSEITE DES ELEMENTES until 2003. He has published five poetry collections, most recently AUSTRALIEN (2010, Berlin Verlag). He is the recipient of numerous German awards for poetry including the Friedrich-Holderlin Prize (2010), the Ernst-Meister Award for Poetry (2005), and a Heinrich Heine Fellowship (2004). In English, Wagner’s work appears in the anthology 20th CENTURY GERMAN POETRY, edited by Michael Hoffmann (FSG, 2008). He has lived in Berlin since 1995.
The Betsy-South Beach is a luxury boutique hotel that has become an epicenter for arts and cultural programs in Miami, and recently debuted a dedicated space for artist respite called The Writer’s Room which artists can apply for short residencies. Jan Wagner is the program’s first international visiting artist. Betsy was recently lauded as Boutique Hotel of 2012 by the BLLA. For more information, visit TheBetsyWritersRoom.com and TheBetsyHotel.com.
