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On April 12, the inaugurates its first poetry book fair to showcase books by poets from the Syracuse area. All poets are invited to engage in an informal dialogue that evening to discuss “the book as object.”

This new program was inspired by a reflection from Point of Contact’s editor, Pedro Cuperman: “In these times when technology and electronic publishing seem to threaten the survival of the printed folio, Point of Contact presents itself as an advocate for the survival of the book as an object. The evolution of the publishing industry is having an impact on readers, their preferences, their habits, and how they experience language arts. Of course there are great advantages in the electronic medium for literary programs. But this is a tool of accessibility and outreach to readers, not a replacement for the material object or the materiality of language and the page as part of the experience of this art form. We all conceive art in multiple dimensions of expression, and it does not exclude any form.”

Point of Contact also presents Cruel April, a weekly poetry event staging New York poets from Point of Contact’s newest poetry collection, “Corresponding Voices, Vol. 5.” Every Thursday of April, Point of Contact will host a free poetry reading, at 6 p.m., followed by a reception and dialogue with the poets, in commemoration of National Poetry Month.

This public program in literature is made possible thanks to the support of The College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of Languages, Literatures & Linguistics at Syracuse University and the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA).