FALL 2016:

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15TH, 4:30 P.M.

READING AND Q&A BY POET, ESSAYIST, AND SCHOLAR EVIE SHOCKLEY

KIRBY 104

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Evie Shockley will be coming to talk and read about her environmental collaboration with artist, Alison Saar.

From the Poetry Foundation’s website:

Born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee in 1965, Evie Shockley received her BA from Northwestern University. After studying Law at the University of Michigan, she earned her PhD in English from Duke University. The author of several collections of poetry, including a half-red sea (2006) and the new black (2011), Shockley is also the author of the critical volume Renegade Poetics: Black Aesthetics and Formal Innovation in African American Poetry (2011). Her poetry and essays have been featured in several anthologies, including Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry (2009), Poets on Teaching: A Sourcebook (2010), A Broken Thing: Contemporary Poets on the Line (2011), and Contemporary African American Literature: The Living Canon (2013).

Read more about Evie Shockley’s work:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/evie-shockley

Sponsored by the Department of English, the Museum and Galleries at Lafayette, and the Department of Africana Studies

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28TH, 7 P.M.

READING WITH CLOSS WRITER-IN-RESIDENCE HEIDI JULAVITS

KIRBY 104

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From Columbia University’s website:

Heidi Julavits is the editor, with Sheila Heti and Leanne Shapton, of Women in Clothes (Blue Rider 2014). Her most recent novel is The Vanishers. She is also the author of The Uses of Enchantment and The Effect of Living Backwards, both New York Times Notable Books, and The Mineral Palace, a finalist for the Young Lions Literary Award. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in Harper’s, Esquire, McSweeney’s, New York Magazine, the New York Times, Vogue, Bookforum and other places. Her work has been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Travel Essays. She’s a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a founding editor of The Believer magazine.

Sponsored by the Department of English

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18TH, 4:10-6PM

WRITE-A-THON

WILLIAMS VISUAL ARTS BUILDING LOBBY

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Come join us for a writing marathon! This free, informal event is open to the entire Lafayette community: students, staff, and faculty. Bring a pen and paper, your journal or laptop, and allow yourself to be inspired by many writing prompts set up throughout the first floor of the Williams Visual Arts Building (lower campus). There are no restrictions on your writing during the marathon. Allow yourself to write freely in any form and to enjoy the entire process. Plentiful coffee and delicious snacks will be provided. Come alone or bring friends!

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26TH, 4:15 P.M.

READING WITH NOVELIST AND ESSAYIST POROCHISTA KHAKPOUR

SKILLMAN 206

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From Khakpour’s official website:

Porochista Khakpour was born in Tehran in 1978 and raised in the Greater Los Angeles area. She has been awarded fellowships from the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars, Northwestern University, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, The Ucross Foundation, Djerassi, and Yaddo. Her work has been nominated for several Pushcart Prizes. She is most recently the recipient of a 2012 National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Literature Fellowship in Creative Writing (Prose). Her debut novel Sons and Other Flammable Objects (Grove/Atlantic, 2007) was a New York Times “Editor’s Choice,” Chicago Tribune “Fall’s Best,” and 2007 California Book Award winner. It also made the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing shortlist, the Dylan Thomas Prize long list, the Believer Book Award longlist, and many others. Her second novel, The Last Illusion (Bloomsbury, 2014) was a Kirkus Best Book of 2014, a Buzzfeed Best Fiction Book of 2014, and an NPR Best Book of 2014, among many others.

In 2017, her first memoir Sick will be published by HarperPerennial: “a memoir of chronic illness, misdiagnosis, addiction, and the myth of full recovery, chronicling the long, arduous discovery of her late-stage Lyme Disease.”

She currently lives in New York City’s Harlem, and is Writer in Residence at Bard College.

Sponsored by The STEAM Mellon Arts Grant

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 3RD, 8 P.M.

PUBLIC RADIO INTERNATIONAL’S SELECTED SHORTS

WILLIAMS CENTER FOR THE ARTS

Selected Shorts Williams Center for the Arts

It’s story time…for adults. Spellbinding, poignant, quirky, and droll, short stories by established greats and sensational emerging writers take on new life when they are read by stars of stage, screen, and television. Public Radio International’s wildly popular series and podcast, produced by New York’s Symphony Space and WNYC Radio, is broadcast on more than 130 stations to some 300,000 avid fans weekly. Yet nothing could be more exhilarating than listening live at the Williams Center to such compelling actors as Jane Curtain, Kate Burton, David Strathairn, BD Wong, or Cynthia Nixon…you never know who is going to appear. Join us for a memorable evening of literature in performance, recorded for future broadcast. Performers to be announced.

SPRING 2017:

THURSDAY, APRIL 20TH, 4:10 P.M.

MACKNIGHT BLACK COMPETITION QUESTION & ANSWER WITH KAZIM ALI

KIRBY 104

From Kazim Ali’s website, http://www.kazimali.com/:

“His books include several volumes of poetry, including Sky Ward, winner of the Ohioana Book Award in Poetry; The Far Mosque, winner of Alice James Books’ New England/New York Award; The Fortieth DayAll One’s Blue; and the cross-genre text Bright Felon: Autobiography and Cities. He has also published a translation of Abahn Sabana David by Marguerite Duras, Water’s Footfall by Sohrab Sepehri, Oasis of Now: Selected Poems by Sohrab Sepehri, and (with Libby Murphy) L’amour by Marguerite Duras. His novels include Quinn’s Passage, named one of “The Best Books of 2005” by Chronogram magazine,and The Disappearance of Seth. His books of essays include Orange Alert: Essays on Poetry, Art and the Architecture of Silence and Fasting for Ramadan. In addition to co-editing Jean Valentine: This-World Company, he is a contributing editor forAWP Writers Chronicle and associate editor of the literary magazine FIELD and founding editor of the small press Nightboat Books. He is the series co-editor for both Poets on Poetry and Under Discussion, from the University of Michigan Press.

Ali’s forthcoming titles include: Uncle Sharif’s Life in Music, a collection of short stories; The Secret Room: A String Quartet, a novel; and Anais Nin: An Unprofessional Study, a new book of essays.  Ali is an associate professor of Creative Writing and Comparative Literature at Oberlin College.”

THURSDAY, APRIL 20TH, 7PM

MACKNIGHT BLACK POETRY READING FEATURING KAZIM ALI AND POETRY COMPETITION READERS

KIRBY 104

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From Kazim Ali’s website, http://www.kazimali.com/

“Kazim Ali is a poet, essayist, fiction writer and translator.His books include several volumes of poetry, including Sky Ward, winner of the Ohioana Book Award in Poetry; The Far Mosque, winner of Alice James Books’ New England/New York Award; The Fortieth DayAll One’s Blue; and the cross-genre text Bright Felon: Autobiography and Cities. He has also published a translation of Abahn Sabana David by Marguerite Duras, Water’s Footfall by Sohrab Sepehri, Oasis of Now: Selected Poems by Sohrab Sepehri, and (with Libby Murphy) L’amour by Marguerite Duras. His novels include Quinn’s Passage, named one of “The Best Books of 2005” by Chronogram magazine,and The Disappearance of Seth. His books of essays include Orange Alert: Essays on Poetry, Art and the Architecture of Silence and Fasting for Ramadan. In addition to co-editing Jean Valentine: This-World Company, he is a contributing editor forAWP Writers Chronicle and associate editor of the literary magazine FIELD and founding editor of the small press Nightboat Books. He is the series co-editor for both Poets on Poetry and Under Discussion, from the University of Michigan Press.Ali’s forthcoming titles include: Uncle Sharif’s Life in Music, a collection of short stories; The Secret Room: A String Quartet, a novel; and Anais Nin: An Unprofessional Study, a new book of essays.  Ali is an associate professor of Creative Writing and Comparative Literature at Oberlin College.”

Join us for an ice cream social and poetry reading, featuring the dynamic poet Javier Avila, author of books of poetry and fiction, and 2015 Pennsylvania Professor of the Year.  Student winners of the competition will read their poems, followed at the podium by the competition judge, Javier Avila.  Afterwards, pizza will arrive, and we’ll hold and informal question and answer session with Javier Avila.

 

From Javier Avila’s website:

“In addition to his accomplishments in academia, Ávila is a renowned poet and novelist whose literary excellence propelled him to international recognition. His bestselling novel Different became an award-winning motion picture entitled Miente, which was screened in over a dozen countries. His poetry booksThe Symmetry of Time and The Dead Man’s Position earned him prestigious awards by the Pen Club and The Puerto Rico Institute of Culture, respectively. Other books—Broken Glass on the Carpet, The Professor in Ruins, and The Oldest Profession—cemented his reputation as a celebrated writer. Ávila’s books have been part of university curricula for years. He frequently visits colleges to discuss his work, motivating students to become better readers and writers. Audiences praise Ávila’s recent work for being a powerful voice for Latinos in the U.S.”

Sponsored by:
Department of English