Poetry Reading with Professor Charles Bachman: October 13

Charles Bachman, professor of English, will read from his fourth book, Blue Mountain Lake Poems, on Thursday, October 13, at 12:15 p.m. in E. H. Butler Library 210 as part of Buffalo State's Year of the Arts celebration. 

Bachman's latest book is a tribute to that eastern upstate New York oasis—the Adirondacks. A three-fold faculty collaboration, the book includes Bachman's words juxtaposed with watercolors by SUNY Distinguished Professor Ann Colley and features cover design by Stan Friesen associate professor of design.

"For quite a few years my wife Nancy and I have been making our annual fall visits to the Adirondacks to hike, climb modest mountains, and soak up the vivid autumn colors and other beautiful things," said Bachman in the forward to his book. "While we have developed a special fondness for our base—the Hedges at Blue Mountain Lake—the beauty of all the places we visit there grows and grows on us."

Blue Mountain Lake Poems includes odes to hiking adventures, celebrations of the park's unspoiled beauty, and tributes to that most popular Adirondack resident—the loon.

Bachman joined Buffalo State’s English Department in 1965 and has been an important contributor to the academic, aesthetic, and cultural life of the institution ever since. In particular, Bachman has demonstrated a deep commitment to diversity on campus, with a special interest in the Native American culture of Western New York and the college’s Native American students. His efforts earned him the President’s Award for Excellence in the Advancement of Equity and Campus Diversity in 2010.

As a teacher and scholar, Bachman is known for his expertise on minority dramatists and authors. His own poems have appeared in Carolina Quarterly and Kansas Quarterly and he has three additional books of poems: If Ariel Danced on the Moon (Trafford, 2006), The Strange Lives of Mr. Shakovo (Trafford, 2008), and A Marked Peculiarity (Trafford, 2009).

Bachman took a 20-year hiatus from writing poetry during an active second career as an operatic baritone, performing 26 major roles and making solo appearances with groups including Opera Rochester, Artpark Opera, the Syracuse Symphony, and the Buffalo Philharmonic. A native of Iowa, he made his way to Buffalo by way of Indiana, Missouri, Nebraska, Texas, and Germany.