Reading and Book Signing with Natasha Trethewey
Thursday, April 20, 2023, from 6-7:30 p.m.
Blue Ridge Ballroom (Room 201AB), Plemmons Student Union
BOONE, N.C. — Appalachian State University’s The Schaefer Center Presents and Appalachian Journal present a reading by poet Natasha Trethewey on Thursday, April 20, from 6-7:30 p.m. in the Blue Ridge Ballroom (Room 201AB) in the Plemmons Student Union as part of the Spring 2023 Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series. This event is free and open to the public. To request a disability accommodation, visit odr.appstate.edu.
Trethewey served two terms as the 19th Poet Laureate of the U.S. (2012-2014). She is the author of five collections of poetry: Monument (2018), which was longlisted for the 2018 National Book Award; Thrall (2012); Native Guard (2006), for which she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize; Bellocq’s Ophelia (2002); and Domestic Work (2000), which was selected by Rita Dove as the winner of the inaugural Cave Canem Poetry Prize for the best first book by an African American poet and won both the 2001 Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Book Prize and the 2001 Lillian Smith Award for Poetry. She is also the author of the memoir Memorial Drive (2020). Her book of nonfiction, Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, was published in 2010.
Trethewey is the recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Beinecke Library at Yale and the Bunting Fellowship Program of the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard. At Northwestern University, she serves as a Board of Trustees Professor of English in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences.
In 2012, she was named Poet Laureate of the State of Mississippi and she was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2013.
"Natasha Trethewey is one of the most important, gifted and prominent poets in the United States. We are beyond thrilled to have her join us. Her visit will be the culmination of our largest and most ambitious year in the Visiting Writers series," remarked Dr. Mark Powell, director of the Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series and associate professor in the Department of English.
Tiffany Green, a senior English major from Marshville, will introduce Trethewey prior to the reading. A book signing and sale will follow the reading.
This event is the third of four events scheduled as part of the Spring 2023 Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series. The Visiting Writers Series is named in honor of the late Hughlene Bostian Frank ('68), recipient of the 2013 Appalachian Alumni Association Outstanding Service Award, past member of Appalachian's Board of Trustees and the Appalachian State University Foundation, long-time member of the College of Arts and Sciences Advancement Board and generous supporter of App State.
The Visiting Writer Series is supported in-part by the App State College of Arts and Sciences and Department of English. For more information and the full list of supporters and sponsors, visit english.appstate.edu/visiting-writers-series.
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About the Appalachian Journal: A Regional Studies Review
Appalachian Journal: A Regional Studies Review, founded in 1972, is an interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed quarterly journal housed at Appalachian State University. The journal features field research, interviews and other scholarly studies of history, politics, economics, culture, folklore, literature, music, ecology and a variety of other topics, as well as poetry and reviews of books, films and recordings dealing with the Appalachian Mountains region. Learn more at https://appjournal.appstate.edu.
About the Department of English
The Department of English at Appalachian State University is committed to outstanding work in the classroom, the support and mentorship of students, and a dynamic engagement with culture, history, language, theory and literature. The department offers master’s degrees in English and rhetoric and composition, as well as undergraduate degrees in literary studies, film studies, creative writing, professional writing and English education. Learn more at https://english.appstate.edu.
About the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts
The Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts is a 1,673-seat, multiuse auditorium located on the campus of Appalachian State University. The center, which features orchestra and balcony level seating as well as a proscenium stage, is dedicated to enhancing the artistic and cultural landscape of Appalachian and the surrounding region by providing a venue devoted to the year-round presentation of campus and community events that enrich, educate, inspire and promote quality of life. The Schaefer Center is also home to the Smith Gallery, which presents work by students and faculty members during the academic year. Learn more at http://theschaefercenter.org.
19th U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize Winner Natasha Trethewey
19th U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize Winner Natasha Trethewey