James Ragan's Poetry Reading

July 20, 2011

James Ragan

On July 20, Ambassador Eisen hosted a reading by internationally renowned American poet James Ragan.  Professor Ragan has come to Prague each summer since 1993 to serve as distinguished visiting professor in poetry and film at the Writing Program at Charles University.  

For 25 years, Professor Ragan served as the director of the University of Southern California’s Professional Writing Program.  He is the author of In the Talking Hours, Womb-Weary, The Hunger Wall, Lusions, Selected Poetry, Shouldering the World, Too Long a Solitude  and is the co-editor of Yevgeny Yevtushenko:  Collected Poems 1952-1990.  Recipient of numerous poetry honors, he has performed his poetry in many countries around the world. 

James Ragan was born in Pittsburgh to Czechoslovak parents from Eastern Slovakia.  His Czechoslovak roots, as well as his love for Prague, have been a source of inspiration for his poems.  Actress Zuzana Stivínová joined him in reading the poems in Czech translation by Daniella Furthnerová.