Holy Family University’s Meet the Author Features Poet Keith Kopka and His Award-Winning Count Four
Holy Family University hosts Meet the Author, featuring poet and faculty member Keith Kopka, and his award-winning, newly released poetry collection.
Holy Family University hosts Meet the Author, featuring poet and faculty member Keith Kopka, and his award-winning, newly released poetry collection.
This live Zoom event will be held on Wednesday, November 11 at 6:30 p.m. EST. This event is FREE and open to the public. Registration is required.
Count Four, The Tampa Review Prize-winning book by Keith Kopka, PhD, assistant professor and writing coordinator for Holy Family University’s School of Arts and Sciences, published October 15.
Upon winning its top prize in December 2019, Tampa Review praised Kopka’s self-described “highly personal collection of poems.”
“Count Four starts by winning us over to a close relationship with the author. We are sharing experiences with a confiding friend, who tells us, ‘I've always wanted to climb behind the wheel of a Zamboni’ and boasts, ‘If I wanted to, I could lift this poem above my head, and hold it there like a cartoon dumbbell.‘ Before we know it, we’re caught up in the real power of a poet driving a vehicle that can smooth and restore the surfaces, leaving them ready to accept fresh scars as the next virtuoso performance or power play begins. We brace ourselves to witness the approaching crashes. We cheer at each passionate shot.”
Kopka’s poetry and criticism have also appeared in Best New Poets, Mid-American Review, New Ohio Review, Berfrois, Ninth Letter, The International Journal of the Book, and many other journals. He is the author of the critical text Asking a Shadow to Dance: An Introduction to the Practice of Poetry and the recipient of the 2017 International Award for Excellence from the Books, Publishing & Libraries Research Network.
At Holy Family University, Kopka launched the Distinguished Writer’s Series in Oct. 2019, featuring Philadelphia’s Poet Laureate Raquel Salas Rivera, and most recently R.O. Kwon, author of the bestseller, The Incendiaries, appeared in Sept. 2020. He is also the co-founder and the director of operations for Writers Resist, an international coalition of writers resisting the erosion of diverse expression and humane values, and a senior editor at Narrative Magazine.
For every advance order of Count Four, the poet will send a copy of the book with a limited-edition original silkscreen poster of the cover art, suitable for framing. Each poster is handmade, numbered and signed by the author. For more information, visit https://utampapress.org/product/a-special-pre-publication-offer.