University of Sydney professor Kate Lilley will present her poetry and research at a lecture at 4 p.m. Thursday in Woodburn Hall 100.
Her work discusses issues such as feminism and gender imbalance, Office of the Provost communications specialist Joe Hiland said.
“She definitely looks at transnational issues and work that crosses different genres, specifically from a feminist perspective,” Hiland said. “That’s been her main scholarly focus here.”
Lilley is the inaugural recipient of the United States Studies Centre-Indiana University Creative Arts Fellowship.
She is visiting IU to conduct research at the Lilly Library on its collection of work by Mary Ellen Solt, who was an IU professor of comparative literature and director of the Polish Studies Center.
The public lecture and poetry reading will involve a Q&A session. It will be followed by a reception at 5:30 p.m. in the Lilly Library.
Lilley’s lecture will detail her study of Solt’s poetry, correspondence and other work.
Solt was known for the 1966 poetry collection “Flowers in Concrete.” She also edited the poetry anthology “Concrete Poetry: A World View.”
Solt was a well-known poet in the mid- to late-20th century, Hiland said.
The Lilly Library’s collection of Solt’s work includes her correspondence with poet William Carlos Williams.
Hiland said Solt’s letters will bring interesting insight into the poet’s work.
He is familiar with Lilley’s work, Hiland said, and he is excited to hear Lilley’s poetry reading.
“I love her poetry,” Hiland said. “She has this sort of minimalist approach. It’s interesting, because I don’t personally see many elements of concrete poetry in the work that she does, but I’ve had a few interesting conversations with her about the ways that people like Solt and other concrete poets have informed her work.”
Hiland said he likes how Lilley approaches topics like feminism in her poetry.
“She addresses issues of gender in straightforward but also nuanced ways in her poetry,” Hiland said. “I think a lot of that comes out of being a female poet and scholar in an academy that has traditionally been dominated by men.”
Hiland said he also hopes the event will open the world of poetry to the wider campus and highlight the archival material at the Lilly Library.
“I think it says a lot that we have both a former professor who is such an amazing figure in the scholarly and poetic world and that we have an institution like the Lilly Library that preserves these amazing materials and is so well known that someone halfway around the world is willing to travel here to conduct research,” he said.
