POET CHARLES SIMIC WILL BE REA VISITING WRITER AT U.VA.

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., March 27 -- Award-winning poet Charles
Simic will be the Rea Visiting Writer at the University of Virginia
the week of April 8.
	Simic, author of some 15 widely acclaimed volumes of poetry,
will talk about his work at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, April 10, in
Campbell Hall Room 153.  He will also read from his poetry at 8 p.m.
on Thursday, April 11, at the same location.  Both events are free
and open to the public.
	A native of the former Yugoslavia, Simic draws heavily upon
his personal experiences in Eastern European tradition.  Some of his
work reflects his childhood memories of violence and despair in war
time and focuses on the spiritual poverty of modern life.  Simic
tempers his realistic portraits of despair with stylistic humor,
irony and surrealism in many of his works.
	Simic has received many distinguished awards for his work
including the 1990 Pulitzer Prize, the Edgar Allan Poe Award from
the American Academy of Poets and a coveted MacArthur Foundation
Fellowship.  He has also been honored with a number of other
fellowships including a Guggenheim fellowship, a Fulbright
travelling fellowship and a fellowship from the National Endowment
for the Arts.  A graduate of New York University, he currently
teaches English at the University of New Hampshire.
	The Rea Visiting Writer program in the U.Va. English
department is supported by the Dungannon Foundation in New York.
The foundation's president, Michael M. Rea, a book and art
collector, is a 1952 alumnus of the University.
	For additional information contact the U.Va. Creative
Writing Program at (804) 924-6675.
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March 26, 1996

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