Thomas Lux, an acclaimed poet of haunted, ironic work, will give readings Thursday in San Marcos and Friday in Kyle. Here’s what he and others have to say about his work:
Pairing humor with sharp existentialism: “I like to make the reader laugh – and then steal that laugh, right out of the throat. Because I think life is like that, tragedy right alongside humor.” – Lux, in an interview with the Los Angeles Times
An outspoken critic of “difficult” poetry: “There’s plenty of room for strangeness, mystery, originality, wildness, etcetera in poems that also invite the reader into the human and alive center about which the poem circles.” — Lux, in an interview with the literary journal Cerise Press
Critical assessment: “Often using ironic or sardonic speakers, startlingly apt imagery, careful rhythms, and reaching into history for subject matter, Lux has created a body of work that is at once simple and complex, wildly imaginative and totally relevant.” — from a Poetry Foundation biography
About the poet: Lux grew up in a working-class family in Massachusetts. He’s a former Guggenheim fellow, a recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and director of a visiting writers program at Georgia Institute of Technology. The most recent of his 11 full-length collections is “God Particles” (Houghton Mifflin, 2008).
First reading: 3:30 p.m. Thursday at the Wittliff Collections, seventh floor of the Alkek Library, Texas State University
Second reading: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Katherine Anne Porter Literary Center, 508 Center St., Kyle
Cost: Free
Sponsors: The Wittliff Collections at Texas State University, Therese Kayser Lindsey Reading Series and the Texas State University Department of English
