Philip Roth, Donna Tartt, E.L. Doctorow, Derek Walcott, Colum McCann, Paul Auster and Elizabeth Gilbert are among the dozens of literary luminaries on the roster for the 2013-2014 season of the 92nd Street Y's Unterberg Poetry Center, which marks its 75th birthday this year.
The poetry center, which hosted the world premiere of Dylan Thomas's “Under Milk Wood†in 1953, will also offer a number of musical and theatrical firsts. On opening night, Sept. 30, Emmanuel Ax and Patrick Stewart will give the New York premiere of their rendering of “Enoch Arden,†a setting of Tennyson's epic poem by Richard Strauss. And on Jan. 16 the center will present a staged reading of Harold Pinter's unfilmed 1972 screenplay based on Proust's “Remembrance of Things Past,†which has never been publicly read or performed in the United States.
The season will also feature some remembrance of the poetry center's own illustrious past, which began on Oct. 26, 1939, with a reading by William Carlos Williams. “75 at 75,†a special online series to be posted throughout the season, pairs recordings of 75 historic readings with commentaries by contemporary writers. (First up: Colm Toibin on Elizabeth Bishop and Rick Moody on W.G. Sebald.) “Love the Words,†an exhibition set to open on Sept. 25, will draw on previously unseen photographs and correspondence from T.S. Eliot, Marianne Moore, Wallace Stevens and others held in the center's archives.
Among the artifacts is a letter from Philip Roth written in April 1993, shortly after his first appearance marking his 60th birthday, in which he promised to return for his 70th.
“I'll bet we get the same audience,†wrote Mr. Roth, who turned 80 in March. “But please, not the same hors d'euvres. But then by 2003 maybe I can spell it!â€
Tickets for the new season go on sale July 18 at www.92y.org/poetry.
