Writers' Workshop alum Jonathan Thirkield will read from his newest book of poems, Infinity Pool. The University of Chicago Press, publisher of Infinity Pool, describes Thirkield's poems as "...[cutting] through a decade of exponential technological growth, landing in the reality of our corporeal experiences: the isolation of chronic illness, the daunting journeys of children growing up today, and the hope that we can remain connected to each other no matter how tenuous the ties." Katie Peterson, Phoenix Poets consulting editor and author of Fog and Smoke, describes Infinity Pool as "at once completely and gorgeously lyric," while Shane McCrae, author of The Many Hundreds of the Scent, describes Thirkield's poems as "encountering a new way to do the lyric in English, as beautiful as the old ways but entirely its own."

Jonathan Thirkield's work explores the boundaries between the human language systems of poetry and code—as forms of expression and as structural models for being. He has worked as an independent Web developer for over a decade, and he has taught poetry at colleges and universities including the Iowa Writers' Workshop and Deep Springs College. He teaches courses in computational media and digital arts at the New School's Graduate Media Studies Program, Parson's Design and Technology MFA program, and Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism MS Data program. His first collection of poetry, The Waker's Corridor, won the 2008 Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets. His interactive work has been accessioned into the Rhizome ArtBase, and his recent writing has appeared in Conjunctions, The New Yorker, and The Paris Review (newschool.edu).

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Readings at Prairie Lights are sponsored by the Writing University.}