Bottum to read from new collection of Poetry

October 17, 2022

Dr. Joseph Bottum will be reading from his brand-new collection of poems, “Spending the Winter,” on Wednesday, Oct. 19 at 3 p.m. in Karl Mundt Library room 201. The public is invited to attend.

This is Bottum’s second book of poetry, the first of which, “The Fall,” was published in 2001 by St. Augustine’s Press.

Bottum, Director of the Classics Institute at DSU and poetry editor of the New York Sun, was commissioned to write the 2022 Phi Beta Kappa Commencement Poem at Princeton University.

“Titled ‘Autumn: A Graduation Poem,’ the piece challenged the graduates to confront their own mortality,” said Dr. David Kenley, Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences.

“Spending the Winter” was published by St. Augustine’s Press this fall. The T.S. Eliot award-winning poet Rhina P. Espailat described the collection as, “poems so severely beautiful that they become unforgettable after one reading…If you’re a reader who loves poetry, whatever mood it’s in, just open ‘Spending the Winter’ anywhere to find poems that hurt, enlighten, and delight.”

“Dr. Bottum’s scholarship extends far beyond poetry,” Kenley said. “The author of over a dozen monographs, he writes convincingly about politics, literature, history, and a host of other disciplines. Regardless of the topic or the audience, Dr. Bottum writes with the precision, power, and piquancy of a highly skilled poet. We are very fortunate to have him as a colleague at DSU.”