Acclaimed writer Gass to speak at Union

Award-winning novelist, essayist and teacher William Gass will speak at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 14, in the Memorial Union’s Tripp Commons, 800 Langdon St.

Gass’s talk, “Rilke and the Requiem,” is part of The Humanities Without Boundaries Lecture Series sponsored by the University of Wisconsin–Madison Center for the Humanities.

Gass will discuss writer and poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), considered one of the greatest lyric poets of modern Germany. Gass describes Rilke’s “Requiem,” the subject of his talk, as one of poetry’s eternal triumphs. The poem, “Requiem for a Friend,” is believed to have been composed for the artist Paula Becker.

Gass is the David May Distinguished University Professor Emeritus in the Humanities and former Director of the International Writers Center at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. His many awards include the Lannan Lifetime Achievement Award (1997), American Book Award (1996) and several Pushcart Prizes.

For more information, call (608) 263-3409.