“We didn’t have television, so my brother and I had to amuse each other on our own, pretty much,” Warren said. “We built toys and read a lot of books, and I became crazy about stories and poems — memorized and recited them.”
Warren will recite her poetry starting at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Venue Fine Art & Gifts. She is visiting as part of speaker series across multiple departments, including the Departments of Comparative Literature, English, French and Italian.
Warren said she has given readings across the country many times in the past, though she said she is excited to come to Bloomington for the first time.
“I’ve been singing my songs on the street corners for many, many years,” Warren said. “Each place is different. Each audience is different. Each performance is a new experience, and you just kind of try to connect with the audience and hope it does connect.”
David Hertz, chair of the Department of Comparative Literature, said Warren’s writing and speaking have always resonated well with him because of her linguistic power and attention to the arts.
“She is very learned, especially in the area of literature and the other arts,” Hertz said. “Her writing shows great attention to European languages but also to the world of art and music, and she often utilizes the vocabulary that comes from the careful perception of the arts.”
Warren, who has published collections of poems in the past, said the program will begin with some readings from Latin, Italian and modern French poetry. She will use the latter part of her time to read her original works, some of which have not yet been published.
There is a certain allure to performing readings of original work and hearing other poets read, Warren said.
“It’s very much a communal art, and poets usually like to see other poets perform and feel and think,” Warren said. “You’re helping, in some large sense, to create an ongoing music together. There are many different styles of poetry and many different styles of performance. I often want to be challenged by new work that is nothing like mine.”
Warren is also a professor at the University of Chicago, where she teaches classes on subjects ranging from the fiction of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry James to French poetry.
In her spare time, Warren said she is working on another collection of poems and a biography of Max Jacob. The perfect balance between creative writing and a biography is one that is almost impossible to find, she said.
“It’s a tussle back and forth because I have a publisher’s deadline for the biography,” Warren said. “I sometimes have to force myself to do it, get myself down to work and work hours and hours a day. Then, something in me rebels and I want to write poetry. Writing poetry almost feels like a criminal act — it gives it a special energy.”
Hertz said he looks forward to seeing Warren’s combination of analytical and creative thoughts during her reading.
“It is a joy to see the connection between the creative mind and the scholarly, contemplative mind — Rosanna Warren is a stellar example of this of this rare combination,” Hertz said. “I am excited that she is coming down from Chicago to visit us. I hope she will feel at home here and come back to visit again.”
For her part, Warren said she is excited to see IU’s rich history of the arts.
“I’m looking forward to coming to Bloomington,” Warren said. “It’s a school with a powerful tradition in the arts, and I’m moved by that tradition. It’s an important part of the history of the university — music, literature, dance, painting. Schools of the arts have mattered — and continue to matter — I think.”
