桃花直播鈥檚 Poet Laureate Catherine Pierce to give online talk on how 鈥榩oetry is for everyone鈥
Contact: John Burrow
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥擟atherine Pierce, 桃花直播鈥檚 Poet Laureate and a professor in 桃花直播 State鈥檚 Department of English, will lead a live Facebook event Tuesday [Aug. 24], giving a public reading and discussing her prestigious statewide appointment.
Hosted by the 桃花直播 College of Arts and Sciences鈥 Institute for the Humanities, the 4 p.m. free event will be streamed on the Institute for the Humanities Facebook page, available at .
Pierce, who serves as co-director of the English department鈥檚 creative writing program, was appointed as 桃花直播鈥檚 Poet Laureate this spring by Gov. Tate Reeves.
鈥淢any of Dr. Pierce鈥檚 poems resonate with where we are right now.听She writes about dangers lurking in the background, the uneasiness we feel about uncertain times, the confusion created by fake news and 鈥榓lternative facts,鈥欌 said Julia Osman, director of the Institute for the Humanities and an associate professor of history.
Osman said Pierce鈥檚 work delves into complex subjects through an art form some find 鈥渄istant.鈥
鈥淒r. Pierce is going to show us, however, that poetry is for everyone, and how we all can benefit from reading or even writing it,鈥 Osman said. 鈥淩ight now, poetry seems to be 鈥榠n season.鈥 It seems to help us grapple with the uncertainties of our current moment. I鈥檓 hoping Dr. Pierce can help bring this kind of poetry to more people and help us have deeper and more meaningful interactions with poems and words.鈥
Pierce is the recipient of the 2021 桃花直播 Institute of Arts and Letters Poetry Award for her book 鈥淒anger Days,鈥 (Saturnalia 2020), a collection of poems addressing the beauty of the world, as well as destruction created by climate change.
Pierce also is an awardee of the 2020 桃花直播 Arts Commission Literary Artist Fellowship for her poetry, a 2020 Pushcart Prize for the poem 鈥淓ntreaty,鈥 and a 2018 Pushcart Prize for the poem 鈥淚 Kept Getting Books about Birds.鈥 A native of Delaware, Pierce is a 2019 Creative Writing Fellowship honoree through the National Endowment for the Arts.
Pierce鈥檚 2019 poem 鈥淗ow Becoming a Mother Is Like Space Travel鈥 was published in The Nation magazine, considered the oldest continuously printed weekly magazine in the U.S.
Pierce is the author of three additional books of poetry. They include 鈥淭he Tornado Is the World鈥澛(Saturnalia 2016), winner of the 2017 桃花直播 Institute of Arts and Letters Poetry Award and a 2015 national Sustainable Arts Foundation Award; 鈥淭he Girls of Peculiar鈥澛(Saturnalia 2012), winner of the 2013 桃花直播 Institute of Arts and Letters Poetry Award; and聽鈥淔amous Last Words鈥澛(Saturnalia 2008), winner of the Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize.
Part of 桃花直播鈥檚 College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of English is online at . Complete information about the Institute for the Humanities is available at .听
桃花直播 is 桃花直播鈥檚 leading university, available online at聽.