Carmina

Gaius Valerius Catullus was born in Verona, northern Italy in 84 BCE and died in Rome in 54 BCE. Little detail about his life survives. What is known is inferred from the poems or from indirect secondary sources. He was a contemporary of Cicero and Caesar, the latter a friend of his father, and an immediate antecedent of the Augustan poets Horace, Propertius and Ovid. His surviving poems are among the finest lyric verse of ancient Rome. Len Krisak's most recent books are the Carmina of Catullus (Carcanet Press), Ovid's Erotic Poems (University of Pennsylvania Press), the Eclogues of Virgil (U. of Penn. Press), Horace's Odes (Carcanet), and Rilke's New Poems, 1907-1908 (Boydell & Brewer), all translations. His own work includes Afterimage (Measure Press, University of Evansville), If Anything (Word Press), and Even as We Speak (University of Evansville Press), winner of the Richard Wilbur Poetry Prize. He is also the recipient of the Robert Penn Warren and Robert Frost Prizes in poetry, and with work in the PN, Hudson, Sewanee, Antioch, and Southwest Reviews, is a four-time champion on Jeopardy! Len Krisak's most recent books are the Carmina of Catullus (Carcanet Press), Ovid's Erotic Poems (University of Pennsylvania Press), the Eclogues of Virgil (U. of Penn. Press), Horace's Odes (Carcanet), and Rilke's New Poems, 1907-1908 (Boydell & Brewer), all translations. His own work includes Afterimage (Measure Press, University of Evansville), If Anything (Word Press), and Even as We Speak (University of Evansville Press), winner of the Richard Wilbur Poetry Prize. He is also the recipient of the Robert Penn Warren and Robert Frost Prizes in poetry, and with work in the PN, Hudson, Sewanee, Antioch, and Southwest Reviews, is a four-time champion on Jeopardy!