ALLEGANY, N.Y. — Michael McGregor, professor of English and creative writing at Portland State University in Oregon, will visit St. Bonaventure University from March 18 to April 3 as the Spring 2017 Lenna Endowed Visiting Professor.
McGregor is the author of “Pure Act: The Uncommon Life of Robert Lax” (Fordham University Press, 2015), which has been shortlisted for numerous awards in biography, American studies, and Catholic publishing and is now being called the definitive Lax biography.
Lax, whom McGregor befriended in Lax’s later years in Greece, was an Olean native and a citizen of the world; a poet, mystic, and visionary; an intimate friend of Thomas Merton; a benefactor of St. Bonaventure University; and the recipient of the first Reginald A. Lenna Visiting Professorship in 1990-1991. Lax died in 2000 at the age of 85.
Free and open to the public, McGregor’s public lecture about the life and work of Lax and the writing of “Pure Act” is scheduled for 4 p.m. March 21 in the amphitheater of the William F. Walsh Science Center. The title for that lecture is “The Island of Uncommon Life: Robert Lax and the Joy of Uncertainty.”
During his two-week stay, McGregor will mentor student writers and visit classes in creative and professional writing. He is scheduled to converse with faculty and staff about Lax’s life and poetry at a Souper Monday luncheon on March 27.
He will deliver introductory remarks about Lax’s poetry at St. Bonaventure University’s conference on concrete and visual poetry, Never Abolish Chance, to be held March 31 and April 1 in honor of Lax and his contributions to modern poetry. For more information about the two-day conference, contact the conference organizers at concrete@sbu.edu.
McGregor will also meet with the campus slam poetry society, Chattertons, and with the staff of The Laurel, St. Bonaventure University’s campus literary magazine.
