Too Long a Solitude

American Poet James Ragan

Reading by James Ragan

When: Thursday, July 29, 6 – 7:30 p.m. 
Where: American Center, Tržiště 13, Prague 1 - Malá Strana

James Ragan, author of award-winning collections of poetry, whose works have been translated into ten languages, will read from his most recent book of poetry “Too Long a Solitude” (2009).

James Ragan has read for six heads of state and at Carnegie Hall and the United Nations. He served for 25 years as the Director of the University of Southern California's Professional Writing Program and more recently as Visiting Distinguished Professor at the University of Oklahoma and Charles University in Prague.

James Ragan Bio

James Ragan is an internationally recognized poet, playwright, and screenwriter and, for 25 years, served as the director of the University of Southern California’s Professional Writing Program.  Dr. Ragan earned his BA (1966) at Saint Vincent College and Ph.D. (1971) from Ohio University. He received Honorary Ph.D.'s from London's Richmond University (2001) and St.Vincent College (1990). He recently completed a Distinguished Visiting Professorship in Film at the Univerersity of Oklahoma (2009) and as the Arts & Sciences Distinguished Visiting Professor in Poetry at Bowling Green State University (2010).
 
Ragan has read his poetry for six heads of state including Mikhail Gorbachev, Czech President Vaclav Klaus, and South Korean Prime Minister Young-Hoon Kang and has been honored here and abroad as an ambassador of poetry.  In 1985 he was one of three Americans, including Robert Bly and Bob Dylan, invited to perform at the First International Poetry Festival in Moscow.  He has also performed his poetry at New York’s Carnegie Hall in 2000 and 2002 and at the United Nations (2001). 
Other venues have included Tokyo, Hong Kong, Beijing, Bangkok, London, Paris, Vienna, Athens, Stockholm, Sofia, Warsaw, Prague, and Rio de Janiero. In Fall, 2007 he was invited by USC and the US World Affairs Council to perform and lecture in Tunisia, Jordan, China, India, and Tibet and in 2008 was invited to give a keynote address at the World Literature Today Conference in Beijing, China.

Ragan is the recipient of numerous poetry honors, including three Fulbright Professorships (Yugoslavia, China, and the Czech Republic), the Emerson Poetry Prize, eight Pushcart Prize nominations, a Poetry Society of America Gertrude Claytor Award, and the Swan Foundation Humanitarian Award. He is the author of "In the Talking Hours,""Womb-Weary,""The Hunger Wall,""Lusions,""Selected Poetry,""Shouldering the World," "Too Long a Solitude" and is the co-editor of"Yevgeny Yevtushenko: Collected Poems,1952-1990." 

His poetry has been called “arresting and distinctive” (Richard Wilbur), “fine-grained and witty” (C.K. Williams), “lyrical and authoritative" (Josephine Miles), and “dominating…with insight that marks major poets” (Miroslav Holub). In 1997 he was inducted to honorary membership in the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences.  He returns each summer since 1993 to serve as Distinguished Visiting Professor in Poetry and Film at Charles University in Prague.  His poetry has been translated into 10 languages and has been recorded on Sony Records, New Letters-on-the-Air, and in A Century of Recorded Poetry for Rhino Records.

Over the years Ragan has also written for the stage and film with original plays including “SAINTS” and “COMMEDIA,” the latter produced by actor Raymond Burr in San Francisco (1984) and in Moscow (1986 & 2008) with later productions in Beijing (2008) Athens (2008) and Paris (2011). His early original screenplays include "THE MAN" (Keenan-Moore Prod.) and "LADY OSCAR" (uncredited, w/ director Jacque Demy, France, 1979). He worked as a screenwriter on the adaptation of “FABER” (1973) for Paramount Pictures and Albert S. Ruddy (Producer,"THE GODFATHER"). It was later produced as "THE VOYAGER" (starring Sam Shepard, 1991). He has participated in various production capacities on “THE BORDER” and Universal's Academy Award winner, “THE DEER HUNTER.” 

His most recent films in development are “THE LAST STORY OF THE CENTURY” (2011), based on the siege of Sarajevo, and “THE SHOE,” (2011) to be produced in association with Sunmin Park's Maxmedia ("The Others").  Ragan worked as a consultant on the movie pilot of the Emmy Award winning TV series “HOW THE WEST WAS WON" and in post-production on Dyan Cannon’s Oscar nominated “NUMBER ONE" (1976).

Ragan also served as writer, producer, and director for the 1981 AMPAS sponsored film “EXILE,” based on the Iranian hostage crisis.

In 1996 BUZZ Magazine named Ragan one of the "100 Coolest People in Los Angeles: Those Who Make a Difference".