A Tribute to the Work & Life of Max Ritvo
Max Ritvo was the author of the poetry collection Four Reincarnations (Milkweed Editions, 2016) and the chapbook, Aeons, for which he was awarded a 2014 Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship. He earned his BA from Yale University and his MFA from Columbia University. He lived in Manhattan until his death, at age twenty-five, in August 2016.
His poetry will be read by his mother, Ariella Ritvo-Silfka, award-winning poet, Kaveh Akbar, and award-winning playwright, Sarah Ruhl. Kaveh Akbar founded and edits Divedapper, where he interviews major voices in contemporary poetry. He is the author of the chapbook Portrait of the Alcoholic (Sibling Rivalry Press, January 2017) and full-length collection Calling a Wolf a Wolf (Alice James Books, 2017). He was born in Tehran, Iran, and spent the last two years living and teaching in Florida.
Award-winning playwright, Sarah Ruhl, received her MFA from Brown University where she studied with Paula Vogel. She won a MacArthur Fellowship in 2006 and, most recently, The Steinberg Distinguished Playwright Award. She served on the executive council of the
Dramatist’s Guild for three years and she is currently on the faculty at Yale School of Drama. Ruhl will read from Letters from Max (forthcoming from Milkweed Editions), the story of the relationship between a young poet diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma and a celebrated playwright who began as his teacher and became his friend, and finally, his student.
