Midwinter Day by Bernadette Mayer

featuring Gabrielle Calvocoressi, Walker Percy Fellow and Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature

Perhaps Bernadette Mayer’s greatest work, Midwinter Day was written on December 22, 1978 at 100 Main Street, in Lennox, Massachusetts.

“Midwinter Day,” as Alice Notley noted, “is an epic poem about a daily routine.” In six parts, Midwinter Day takes us from awakening and emerging from dreams through the whole day—morning, afternoon, evening, night—to dreams again: “. . . a plain introduction to modes of love and reason / Then to end I guess with love, a method to this winter season / Now I’ve said this love it’s all I can remember / Of Midwinter Day the twenty-second of December.”

“The book uses both long, elegant lines (occasionally and humorously rhyming) and prose poetry (reminiscent of her works from the 70s like Studying Hunger and Memory) to prove that the day like the dream has everything in it. Cataloging this everything, as it comes out of and vanishes back into the quotidian routine of buying food, going to the library, cooking for children, visiting friends and writing, becomes an occasion for Mayer’s characteristic enthusiasm, inventiveness, and brilliance.”

— Publishers Weekly

DETAILS

Meeting Dates and Times: Tuesdays, December 3, 10, and 17* |10:00 am-12:00 pm

*For the December 17 session, CPH will host an optional potluck gathering where participants will be able to read much of Mayer’s poem aloud.

Cost: $50, includes a copy of the book shipped to your home

This is a hybrid program held at Flyleaf Books. A very limited number of virtual seats are available on a first come, first served basis

Register Online

Due to the nature of the reading groups, refunds are not available.