Poetry Reading by Alexander Dickow

Alexander Dickow reading will include excerpts from Déblais (w/English translations), Caramboles in both languages, Appétits/Appetites in both languages, Un grenier in French only, as well as excerpts from unpublished work in English (from two works: Duet With Commentary, and Hob’s Labor, two narrative works in verse).

Alexander Dickow is a poet and scholar who writes in French and English. He was born in Lexington, Kentucky and grew up in Moscow, Idaho; he is now an associate professor of French at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. His first book, Caramboles(Argol Editions, 2008), is a collection of poems in French and English. Rather than translations or even adaptations, these poems are recreations in the other language – sometimes from French to English, sometimes the reverse. His second full-length book of poems, Appetites (MadHat Press, 2018) has recently been published in French as Appétits (La Rumeur Libre, 2022); the latter volume includes a new collection of poems in French under the title Un grenier. Dickow’s works involve extensive play with syntax, and they often transgress grammatical rules in both languages.

Other works include a novel in French, Le Premier Souper (La Volte, 2021); a collection of aphoristic critical fragments, Déblais(Louise Bottu, 2021); Rhapsodie curieuse (Louise Bottu, 2017), a poetic treatise in prose; and Trial Balloons (Corrupt Press, 2012), a chapbook of poems primarily in English. Dickow is currently at work on a second novel and on a pair of long narrative or dramatic poems under the general title Hob’s Labor. He has also published scholarly books and articles on literature and film of the 20th and 21st centuries, and translations of books by Gustave Roud, Max Jacob, Sylvie Kandé, and Henri Droguet.