Ashbery And Koch Will Read
Two eminent American poets, John Ashbery and Kenneth Koch, will read from their work on Sunday at 5 p.m. as part of the Writers At Guild Hall series.
Mr. Ashbery, who will celebrate his 70th birthday this weekend, is the only American poet to win all three annual literary prizes - the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the National Book Award - for one book, "Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror."
His other honors include Mac Arthur and Guggenheim Fellowships, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, and the Feltrinelli Prize. His 17th and most recent collection is "Can You Hear, Bird?"
Mr. Koch, who teaches at Columbia University and is the author of many collections of poetry, short plays, and fiction, received the Bollingen Prize for his books "One Train" and "On the Great Atlantic Rainway: Selected Poems 1950-1988." His most recent book is "The Gold Standard," a collection of plays.
Tickets are available at the Guild Hall box office.
At Book Hampton
Book Hampton in East Hampton has a lively lineup for the weekend, with readings from the diaries of James Schuyler and the latest edition of Hampton Shorts, the East End's literary magazine, and, for those looking for something a little different, from books on alternative medicine and living in a menage a trois.
Dr. Leo Galland will discuss his book, "The Four Pillars of Healing," tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. A New York City internist and pioneer in "integrated medicine," Dr. Galland argues that conventional medicine must learn to recognize patients as individuals, not as the sum of their symptoms.
His four-tier plan combines both conventional and alternative medicine to restore the body's balance.
James Schuyler's Diary
On Saturday at 5:30 p.m., friends and colleagues of the late poet James Schuyler will read from and discuss "The Diary of James Schuyler," recently published by Black Sparrow Press.
Mr. Schuyler was a focal point of the New York and East End arts communities, and his diary is filled with revelations about Truman Capote, Mr. Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, Fairfield Porter, and others. Joining the diary's editor, Nathan Kernan, for this event will be Susan Baran, Marc Cohen, and Anne Porter.
Immediately following that reading, on Saturday at 7 p.m., Barbara Foster, Michael Foster, and Letha Hadady will discuss "Three in Love: Menages a Trois From Ancient to Modern Times."
The three authors themselves live together. Their book traces the menage a trois over the centuries - both in real life and as portrayed in art - and offers a portrait of threefold love.
The book makes a case for the menage a trois as an alternative to the standard two-person partnership and casts light on some famous historical trios, from the Biblical patriarch Abraham, his wife, Sarah, and the handmaiden Hagar, to Henry and June Miller and Anais Nin, and the Beat writer Jack Kerouac and Neal and Carolyn Cassady.
Book Hampton's weekend closes with another group reading on Sunday at 5:30 p.m., of authors featured in the latest issue of Hamptons Shorts.
The writers who will be on hand are Anne Aldrich, Marjorie Appleman, Diana Chang, August Franza, Kenny Mann, Joe Pintauro, Daniel Stern, and Hampton Shorts' Junior Writer Award winner, Ellen Bates.