The Hamden Arts Commission will join Steve Rodgers – owner of Hamden's music venues, The Space and The Outer Space – Thursday night in presenting an evening tribute to poet Franz Douskey, whose recent collection, “West of Midnight: New & Selected Poems” was nominated for a 2012 Pulitzer Prize.

Here is Franz:
 

The event, entitled “West of Ordinary: A Celebration of Pulitzer- Nominated Poet, Franz Douskey,” will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, May 24, at The Outer Space, 295 Treadwell St., Hamden. The informal festivities will include a reception with soft live jazz and light snacks, followed by Douskey's reading of select works, and interspersed with a few toasts by friends and colleagues.

Douskey is regarded as an influential contemporary American writer who has been published in nearly two hundred publications, including The Nation, The New Yorker, Georgia Review, New York Quarterly and Rolling Stone. He has read from his works at hundreds of venues, and occasionally read with Allen Ginsberg, who was a longtime friend and correspondent. Douskey is noted for his larger-than-life personality, his brutal honesty and his irreverent wit.

“West of Ordinary” is free and open to the public, although there will be a cash bar. For information, contact the Arts Commission at (203) 287-2546 or https://mail.journalregister.com/owa/redir.aspx?C=sJsoAmQ28kGwPBHFL3zHg3yJHl2cDM8IoHinW2b35tLbeIIGkihWFMueUxnaRKqlss1mdM-J6aI.&URL=mailto%3amcoleman%40hamden.com.