Labyrinth Books in Princeton will host a hybrid, livestream event with Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon on Wednesday, December 1 at 6 p.m. Muldoon will introduce his 14th collection of poetry, entitled Howdie-Skelp: Poems. He will be joined by fellow poet Michael Dickman.

A ‘howdie-skelp’ is the slap in the face a midwife gives a newborn. It’s a wake-up call. A call to action. The poems in Howdie-Skelp include a nightmarish remake of The Waste Land, an elegy for his fellow Northern Irish poet Ciaran Carson, a crown of sonnets that responds to the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, a translation from the ninth-century Irish, and a Yeatsian sequence of ekphrastic poems that call into question the very idea of an ‘affront’ to good taste. Muldoon is a poet who continues not only to capture but to hold our attention.

Muldoon has taught creative writing at Princeton University for 30 years. He is the author of over a dozen collections of poetry, including Moy Sand and Gravel, for which he won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize, and Selected Poems 1968-2014.

As a hybrid event, attendees have the option of listening in person or virtually. In-person guests must wear a mask and show proof of vaccination upon entering Labyrinth Books. This event is co-sponsored by Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts.

For additional details, visit https://www.labyrinthbooks.com or call 609.497.1600.