Nationally Recognized Poets Featured at Poetry Reading at West Virginia State Nov. 19

11/5/2015

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Contact: Kimberly Osborne
(304) 766-3363
kosborne@wvstateu.edu
 
   
INSTITUTE, W.Va. – Two nationally recognized poets will be featured at a poetry reading Thursday, Nov. 19, at 7 p.m. at West Virginia State University (WVSU).

The reading will take place in the Skeen Black Box Theater, located in the Cole Complex building, and will feature poets Carl Phillips and Phillip B. Williams. The event is free and open to the public.

Phillips, who has twice been a finalist for the National Book Award, is the author of more than a dozen books of poetry, including “The Art of Daring” and “Reconnaissance.” He is a professor of English at Washington University in St. Louis, where he also teaches creative writing.

Phillips was elected a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 2006, and since 2011 he has served as the judge for the Yale Series of Younger Poets. His poetry books have won numerous awards including the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Poetry, the Samuel French Morse Poetry Prize and the Kingsley Tuft Poetry Award.

Williams is a creative writing fellow at Emory University. He is the author of two chapbooks of poetry “Bruised Gospels” and “Burn,” as well as the forthcoming “Thief in the Interior” due to be published in 2016.

Williams is a graduate of Cave Canem, an organization that supports African-American poets, and he is the poetry editor of the online journal Vinyl Poetry.

Following the readings by Phillips and Williams there will be a question and answer session.

The poetry reading is sponsored by the West Virginia State University Cultural Activities Committee. For more information about other upcoming cultural events in campus, visit www.wvstateu.edu/culturalactivities.

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West Virginia State University is a public, land grant, historically black university, which has evolved into a fully accessible, racially integrated, and multi-generational institution, located in Institute, W.Va. As a “living laboratory of human relations,” the university is a community of students, staff, and faculty committed to academic growth, service, and preservation of the racial and cultural diversity of the institution. Its mission is to meet the higher education and economic development needs of the state and region through innovative teaching and applied research.