The book, which chronicles Weiner’s experiences with refugees during the past year, opens a new view on German society’s attempt to cope with an impossible situation: millions of people displaced by the Syrian civil war, fleeing violence and seeking safety and the possibilities of a new life in the West.
The book began as a straightforward journal transcription of his experiences. Those entries were posted daily at The Los Angeles Review of Books, in February, and the e-book was published this month. Proceeds benefit the International Rescue Committee, which helps refugees throughout the world.
Weiner is the author of the poetry collections “The World’s Room,” “From the Book of Giants” and “The Figure of a Man Being Swallowed by a Fish.” He is also the editor of “At the Barriers: On the Poetry of Thom Gunn.” He is a Guggenheim Fellow and has received a Whiting Writers Award, the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, the Larry Levis Award and an Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Scholarship. He teaches at the University of Maryland, College Park, and is the poetry editor at Tikkun magazine.
The event, which is free and open to the public, will include a Q&A and reception.
The Writers House at Merrimack College is dedicated to creative writing, reading and thinking, and is a resource for students, faculty, alumni and the wider community.
For more information, visit merrimack.edu/writershouse.
