Poet
William Trowbridge’s latest collection imagines King Kong traipsing across a handful of patently American pursuits, Forrest Gump-style — there are baseball, auditions at the William Morris Talent Agency, Vietnam. The clever idea sends the iconic monster fumbling through the middle decades of the 20th century. Eventually, the beast is felled by the war toys of man. Tonight at 7 p.m., you can decide whether the wordplay works when Trowbridge reads at the Johnson County Central Resource Library (9875 West 87th Street in Overland Park, 913-495-2400). Also reading is
Silvia Kofler, an Austrian émigré poet and playwright who exalts caffeine as one of the squarest but most direly addictive legal drugs. Kofler writes bilingually — in German and English — and uses words such as “lollygag.” But then, this is poetry, and “hang around” is just too prosaic. For more information, see
jocolibrary.org or
newletters.org.
Third Tuesday of every month, 7 p.m., 2004
