Mary Jo Bang

For 20 summers now, students of all ages and from all walks of life have gathered on the campus of Washington University in St. Louis to write, read, write, read and write some more. The Summer Writers Institute, an intensive, two-week writing seminar that is part summer camp, part MFA-level instruction, is thriving after two decades.

The Academy of American Poets has selected Mary Jo Bang’s translation of Dante’s Inferno as one of the Notable Books of 2012. Bang is a professor of English in Arts & Sciences. Her Inferno: A New Translation was one of only 12 books that made the notable list for 2012. The American Library Association also recently selected Bang’s Inferno as one of only two books of poetry to make its Notable Books for Adults 2013 list.

Still looking for that perfect holiday gift to buy? A book by a Washington University faculty author could be the answer to the devoted readers on your list. More than 90 WUSTL faculty books have been published over the past three years.

Washington University Libraries and the St. Louis Poetry Center will present a program featuring the works of renowned American poet Elizabeth Bishop at 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 23, in Wilson Hall, Room 214, on Washington University’s Danforth Campus. A reception will follow in the Ginkgo Reading Room in the nearby Olin Library. The event is free and open to the public.

Courtesy photoMary Jo BangPoet Mary Jo Bang, associate professor of English in Arts & Sciences, will read from her latest collection, The Eye is Like a Strange Balloon (2004), at 8 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 2, for The Writing Program Reading Series.