Events
October 4, 2010
Festival to showcase top Southern poets
Emory professor and Pulitzer-Prize winning poet Natasha Trethewey will give a reading at the Festival of Southern Poets on Oct. 7 at 6 p.m.
Emory University Libraries and its Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library (MARBL) will host the Poetry Society of America's (PSA) centennial events in the South on Thursday, Oct. 7.
The Festival of Southern Poets is one of six PSA regional centennial celebrations across the country, each featuring a different lineup of poets. According to MARBL curator Kevin Young, Emory is an ideal location for the festival as a hub for Southern verse and poetry, with holdings from noteworthy poets like James Dickey to international bards such as Seamus Heaney.
The poets featured at the 6 p.m. readings include two Pulitzer Prize winners: Claudia Emerson and Natasha Trethewey; a MacArthur Fellowship "Genius Award" winner, C.D. Wright; and a Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award winner, Thomas Lux.
"These are some of the best poets around, and this is a great opportunity to see all of these poets at once," Young says.
The panel of poets at 4 p.m. will talk about their views of Southern poetry and discuss the future of poetry in the South with the audience.
The afternoon panel and an evening of readings by Southern poets are free and open to the public, and will be followed by a ticketed benefit reception, sponsored by the PSA, MARBL and the Hightower Fund.
View the full schedule of events.
