We are so excited to be offering an addition to the Piccolo Spoleto schedule this year in the form of two fabulous poets!

On Saturday, June 11 from 5:30 - 7:00 pm, we are honored to host poet Richard Tillinghast at Buxton Books to read from his first collection of poems in ten years, Blue If Only I Could Tell You. Richard will be introduced by Charleston’s own Gary Jackson. This is a free event, but RSVPs are encouraged; email rsvp@buxtonbooks.com to reserve your spot! Please come, bring questions, have a glass of wine, and be ready to be awed by words and the wisdom of this remarkable poet.

ABOUT “BLUE IF ONLY I COULD TELL YOU”

Melodious, lyrical, these poems of place and displacement are deeply personal at times as they look back over a long and eventful life. Tillinghast also focuses on troubled and troubling aspects of the American story: the Indian Wars of the 19th century and the history of race relations in his native South, from slavery to the country's current racial reckoning. It is rare to see a poet with such gifts for musicality, vivid imagery and finely honed diction address himself so pointedly to issues of social and political import. This is Tillinghast’s thirteenth collection of poetry.

ABOUT RICHARD TILLINGHAST

Poet Richard Tillinghast was born in Memphis, Tennessee. Tillinghast is the author of twelve books of poetry including, most recently, Selected Poems (2008) and Wayfaring Stranger (2012). Using formal constraint to shape and sharpen his examinations of historical and personal events, Tillinghast is often concerned with the elusive nature of home.

ABOUT GARY JACKSON

Gary Jackson is the author of Missing You, Metropolis (Graywolf Press, 2010), which was selected by Yusef Komunqakaa as winner of the 2009 Cave Canem Poetry Prize. He teaches in the MFA program at the College of Charleston in Charleston, South Carolina.

Though this is a free in-store event, RSVPS are encouraged. Please email rsvp@buxtonbooks.com today to save your spot!