Renowned poet Claudia Rankine will headline º¬Ð߲ݴ«Ã½ University’s Visiting Writers Series.
The award-winning author will give a free reading of her poetry on Tuesday, October 11 at 6:30 p.m. in O’Donnell Auditorium, located at 50th Street and Huntington Ave.
Rankine is the author of five poetry collections including Citizen: An American Lyric — the only poetry book to be a New York Times bestseller in the nonfiction category. For Citizen, Rankine has won the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, the Los Angeles Times Book Award, the PEN Open Book Award, and the NAACP Image Award. The book highlights what it means to exist as an American citizen in a multicultural society today.
In September, Rankine was awarded the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, which is presented by the John D. and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation. Winners receive $625,000 to pursue their work.
In addition to her poetry, Rankine has authored plays, edited anthologies, and collaborated in video productions. Among her numerous awards and honors, Rankine is the recipient of the Poets & Writers’ Jackson Poetry Prize and fellowships from the Lannan Foundation and the National Endowment of the Arts.
A book signing will follow her reading.
The Fall Visiting Writers Series also includes:
- Peter Gizzi — Wednesday, September 28, 6:30 p.m., Elder Gallery. Gizzi is the author of seven collections of poetry, most recently, Archeophonics, In Defense of Nothing. Archeophonics was recently long-listed for the National Book Award. His honors include the Lavan Younger Poet Award from the Academy of American Poets, and fellowships in poetry from The Fund for Poetry, The Rex Foundation, The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the Judith E. Wilson Visiting Fellowship in Poetry at Cambridge University.
- Lucy Ives — Thursday, November 17, 6:30 p.m., Elder Gallery. Ives is the author of five books of poetry and prose, most recently The Hermit, a collection of aphorisms and extremely short stories. Her criticism has appeared in numerous publications, including Artforum, newyorker.com, and the Los Angeles Review of Books. In 2017, Penguin Press will release her first full-length novel, Impossible Views of the World.