Poetry as Survival: Gregory Orr at the New School

Poet Gregory Orr will be discussing "Poetry as Survival" in a conversation presented by Arts in Mind at the New School on Wednesday, February 8, at 8 PM.

“Poetry is a way of surviving the emotional chaos, spiritual confusions and traumatic events that come with being alive." - Gregory Orr

Gregory Orr is the author of 10 collections of poetry, a Guggenheim and NEA fellow and a longtime professor of creative writing at the University of Virginia. Arts in Mind at the New School is hosting this presentation and conversation with Dr. Donald Rosen, medical director/CEO of the Austen Riggs Center.


Informed by tragedies of his own childhood, Mr. Orr came to battle his way from meaningless to meaning through creative work. He is the author of 10 collections of poetry, a Guggenheim and NEA fellow, and a longtime professor of creative writing at the University of Virginia. “I wrote a poem one day,” he writes in his book Poetry as Survival, ”and it changed my life. I had a sudden sense that the language in poetry was ‘magical’ … it could create or transform reality rather than simply describe it.”

This event, which is free and open to the public, will be held at The New School, Arnold Hall, 55 West 13th Street, 2nd floor.

More information on Arts in Mind and future presentations in this series on the arts and mental health here 

A Poem by Mr. Orr here and another here; lyrical and mysterious.