The Virginia Festival of the Book has confirmed that it will host John Guzlowski, author of Echoes of Tattered Tongues: Memory Unfolded (Aquila Polonica, 2016), at CitySpace, 100 5th Street NE, Charlottesville, VA 22902, on Thursday, March 23, 2017, at 2 p.m.

Guzlowski will participate in the program titled “Literary Memoirs of Lost Worlds,” exploring personal stories of lost family, lost worlds, with Caroline Heller (Reading Claudius: A Memoir in Two Parts), moderated by Carolyn Cades. More info at: http://vabook.org/program/literary-memoirs-of-lost-worlds/

Guzlowski is Professor Emeritus of English Literature at Eastern Illinois University, and currently lives in Lynchburg, Virginia. He received his B.A. in English Literature from the University of Illinois, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in English from Purdue University.

Over a writing career that spans more than 40 years, Guzlowski has amassed a significant body of published work in a wide range of genres: poetry, prose, literary criticism, reviews, fiction and nonfiction. His work has appeared in numerous national journals and anthologies, and in four prior books. Winner of the Illinois Arts Council’s $7,500 Award for Poetry, Guzlowski has also been short-listed for the Bakeless Award and Eric Hoffer Award, and nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and four Pushcart Prizes. He has been honored by the Georgia State Commission on the Holocaust for his work.

Guzlowski’s work has garnered high praise, including from Nobel Laureate Czesław Miłosz, who called Guzlowski’s poetry “exceptional.”

His newest book, Echoes of Tattered Tongues: Memory Unfolded, was just named a Finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award 2017 Montaigne Medal, given to honor the most thought-provoking books of the year.

In Echoes of Tattered Tongues, Guzlowski uses an innovative structure of poetry and prose unfolding backwards in time to tell the story of war refugee immigrants in America. Raw and at the same time compassionate, Echoes of Tattered Tongues is a portrait of Guzlowski’s family: his parents taken as slave laborers to German concentration camps during World War II; his sister and he born in Displaced Persons camps; the family struggling to build a new life in an America that did not want them. More info, including the book trailer, at: http://www.polww2.com/AboutEchoes

“Deeply moving. A powerful, lasting, and sometimes shocking book. Superb,” says Kelly Cherry, Poet Laureate of Virginia (2010–2012), about Echoes of Tattered Tongues.

“Our readers were quite touched by his writing,” wrote Jane Kulow, Director, Virginia Center for the Book, in notifying Guzlowski’s publisher, Aquila Polonica, that Guzlowski had been chosen as a featured speaker for the 2017 Festival.

More praise for Echoes of Tattered Tongues:
“Gut-wrenching narrative lyric poems.”—Publishers Weekly
“Taut…beautifully realized.” —World Literature Today
“A formally coherent, challenging, and important book” —Harvard Review
“A searing memoir.” —Shelf Awareness
“Devastating, one-of-a-kind collection.” —Foreword Reviews
“Powerful…Deserves attention and high regard.” —Kevin Stein, Poet Laureate of Illinois

Aquila Polonica Publishing, www.AquilaPolonica.com, is an award-winning independent publisher based in Los Angeles, specializing in publishing the Polish WWII experience in English. The company is a member of the Association of American Publishers (AAP) and the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA). Aquila Polonica’s titles are distributed to the trade in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Europe, Australia and New Zealand by National Book Network, www.nbnbooks.com, and are available from fine bookstores, online retailers, and all major wholesalers.

About the Virginia Festival of the Book: A signature program of Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (VFH) and the Virginia Center for the Book, the Virginia Festival of the Book brings readers and writers together in Charlottesville, Va. for a five-day program of mostly free events including author readings, book signings, panel discussions, programs for children, and more. The 23rd annual Festival will be held March 22–26, 2017. The Festival has consistently attracted audiences of more than 20,000 from more than forty states each spring, with an estimated local economic impact of about $4 million annually. To learn more, visit VaBook.org.

About VFH: The mission of Virginia Foundation for the Humanities is to connect people and ideas to explore the human experience and inspire cultural engagement. VFH reaches an estimated annual audience of 23 million through Community Programs, Digital Initiatives, Scholarship, and the Virginia Center for the Book. For more information, visit VirginiaHumanities.org.