Baron Wormser Book Launch: "Tom o'Vietnam"
The former poet laureate of Maine presents his debut novel, Tom o'Vietnam,
with a reading, talk, Q&A, book signing, and refreshments. Free and open to
the public.
About the book:
“In Tom o’Vietnam, Baron Wormser has created a stunning literary mash-up
of a soldier’s fractured survival co-mingled with Shakespeare’s King
Lear. This commanding narrative explores the pilgrimage of a young veteran
who roams America as if it will lead him to King Lear’s plains of Dover.
Mired in ‘the poetry of incomprehension,’ Tom wanders in a helix spun
with the intricacies of words and the spaces between them, grappling with the
tragedy of Lear to find his way. I was thoroughly engaged in this richly
layered story and was equally rewarded to witness a tenderness of love that
underscores Tom’s odyssey, and the surprise of my own emotions overcome
with a rare kind of love for this character and this book.”
—Eugenia Kim, author of The Calligrapher’s Daugher
About the author:
Baron Wormser is the author/co-author of fifteen books and a poetry chapbook.
His books include Scattered Chapters: New and Selected Poems (Sarabande
Books), The Road Washes Out in Spring: a Poet’s Memoir of Living Off the
Grid (University Press of New England), and The Poetry Life: Ten Stories
(CavanKerry Press). His novel Tom o’ Vietnam, about a Vietnam veteran who
is obsessed with King Lear, was published by New Rivers Press in the fall of
2017. Wormser has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the
Arts, Bread Loaf, and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. From
2000 to 2005 he served as poet laureate of the state of Maine. He has taught
many dozens of workshops across the United States and continues to offer
generative workshops in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction along with workshops
focusing on the works of a particular poet. He teaches in the Fairfield
University MFA Program and lives with his wife Janet in Montpelier, Vermont.
Event date:
Tuesday, January 30, 2018 - 7:00pm
Event address:
Bear Pond Books
77 Main St.
Montpelier, VT 05602
United States