For our Black American Writers Series, we will welcome Pulitzer Prize Winner Gregory Pardlo to campus for two sessions: an afternoon discussion and Q&A, immediately followed by a reading from both Pardlo and ETSU's Valencia Robin for the debut of her second book, Lost Cities.
On Wednesday, October 22nd, in the Culp's East Tennessee Room (272) from 1:40 to 3 PM, join us for a roundtable discussion with Pardlo and Valencia Robin. Hosted by Amy Wright, with an audience Q&A to follow.
From 3:15 to 4:30 PM, Pardlo will give a reading of his work alongside Robin.
Books for sale from Atlas Books.
About Pardlo: Gregory Pardlo is the author of Spectral Evidence, which was a Finalist for the Kingsley Tufts Prize and the National Book Award, and Digest, winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. His other books include Totem, winner of the American Poetry Review/ Honickman Prize, and Air Traffic, a memoir in essays. The book, which weaves together Pardlo’s family history—including his father’s role in the 1981 air traffic controller’s strike—with a larger exploration of Blackness and masculinity in American culture, was named to numerous top-ten lists, including the BBC, Vogue, the New Jersey Monthly, and the New York Times.
His honors include fellowships from the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. He divides his time between New York and the United Arab Emirates where he is Head of Literature and Creative Writing at NYU Abu Dhabi.
Gregory Pardlo was born in Philadelphia and grew up in Willingboro, New Jersey. He is the author of Totem (2007), winner of the APR/Honickman First Book Prize, and Digest (2014), winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. The Pulitzer judges cited Pardlo’s “clear-voiced poems that bring readers the news from 21st Century America, rich with thought, ideas and histories public and private.”
Pardlo’s poems, reviews, and translations have been widely published and are noted for “language simultaneously urban and highbrow… snapshots of a life that is so specific it becomes universal.”
About Robin: Valencia Robin is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice includes poetry and painting. A recipient of a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship, her debut poetry collection, Ridiculous Light, won Persea Books’ first book prize, was a finalist for the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and was named one of Library Journal’s best poetry books of 2019. Her poems have appeared in The Best American Poetry, The New York Times, and The Virginia Quarterly Review (VQR) as well as other publications. She is also the winner of VQR’s Emily Clark Balch Prize.
A co-founder of GalleryDAAS at the University of Michigan, Robin’s artwork has been shown nationally and supported by the King-Chavez-Parks Future Faculty Fellowship and the Center for the Education of Women’s Margaret Towsley Fellowship. Robin has an MFA in Art & Design from the University of Michigan and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Virginia. A teacher, editor, curator and arts administrator, she does readings, artist talks, class visits and workshops at colleges and universities around the country. Robin currently teaches at East Tennessee State University and lives in Johnson City, Tennessee.
Also check out other Arts events in Johnson City, Literary Art events in Johnson City, Workshops in Johnson City.
