Hostos Assistant Professor of English Anne Lovering Rounds has published her first book titled,
Variations in an Emergency.
A native of Ann Arbor, Michigan, Rounds has been a member of the Hostos faculty since 2012. She graduated from the University of Chicago with degrees in English and Classics and holds a Doctorate in Comparative Literature from Harvard University.
Variations in an Emergency is a collection of poems about longing and loss. The book’s 32 poems resonate with literary and musical allusion, and the book is inspired by the structure of Baroque composer J. S. Bach’s
Goldberg Variations for keyboard, in which an aria is the theme for 30 subsequent variations and then returns to end the set. The book opens with a poem called “Aria,” which contains the subjects of the other poems in the collection.
When the theme returns at the end of the
Goldberg Variations, the experience is one of closure and instability: something monumental has ended but also appears to be starting again. In the same way, the book also ends with a poem called “Aria,” a work that is both an ending and a hint that the sequence could start over. The inaugural collection of a pianists’ poet, these 32 short lyric poems bear witness to the fact that memories, encounters, dreams, and desires repeat but never resolve.
Rounds’ writing has appeared in journals including
Coldnoon,
Hartskill Review,
Journal of Beat Studies,
Literary Imagination,
New Writing,
Penny Ante Feud,
Soundings,
Text Matters, and
Proteus.
A pianist since the age of 6, she currently studies with New York-based pianist, writer, and advocate Adam Tendler. Rounds even displayed some of her phenomenal pianist talent during the college’s 2016 Giving Tuesday celebration.
Variations in an Emergency is the 2014 winner of the Cathlamet Prize for Poetry and was published by Ravenna Press, an independent publisher in Washington State.
Variations in an Emergency can be purchased through Ravenna Press by clicking
here.
About Hostos Community College
Eugenio María de Hostos Community College is an educational agent for change that has been transforming and improving the quality of life in the South Bronx and neighboring communities for nearly half a century. Since 1968, Hostos has been a gateway to intellectual growth and socioeconomic mobility, as well as a point of departure for lifelong learning, success in professional careers, and transfer to advanced higher education programs.
Hostos offers 28 associate degree programs and two certificate programs that facilitate easy transfer to The City University of New York’s (CUNY) four-year colleges or baccalaureate studies at other institutions. The College has an award-winning Division of Continuing Education & Workforce Development that offers professional development courses and certificate-bearing workforce training programs. Hostos is part of CUNY, the nation’s leading urban public university, which serves more than 500,000 students at 24 colleges.