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Please join us in welcoming the New York Times best-selling author Claudia Rankine to Bloomington-Normal on Thursday, April 13, for an evening of poetry and discussion! At 4:00pm, Rankine will hold an informal Q/A at Illinois Wesleyan University's Memorial Center (Young Main Lounge).
And at 7:00pm, Rankine will read from her most recent work at the Normal Theater, followed by a reception at Medici. Books will be available for purchase at Medici.
Both events are free and open to the public! This event is made possible by The William Morgan Distinguished Poet Series, as well as a number of generous sponsors (listed below).
Please direct any event questions to Dr. Kirstin Hotelling Zona at [email protected].
Full author bio:
Claudia Rankine is the author of five books of poetry, including Citizen: An American Lyric and Don’t Let Me Be Lonely: An American Lyric; three plays including HELP, which premiered in March 2020 (The Shed, NYC), and The White Card, which premiered in February 2018 (ArtsEmerson/ American Repertory Theater) and was published by Graywolf Press in 2019; as well as numerous video collaborations. Her recent collection of essays, Just Us: An American Conversation, was published by Graywolf Press in 2020. She is also the co-editor of several anthologies including The Racial Imaginary: Writers on Race in the Life of the Mind.
In 2016, Rankine co-founded The Racial Imaginary Institute (TRII). Among her numerous awards and honors, Rankine is the recipient of the Bobbitt National Prize for Poetry, the Poets & Writers’ Jackson Poetry Prize, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Lannan Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, United States Artists, and the National Endowment of the Arts. A former Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, Claudia Rankine joined the NYU Creative Writing Program in Fall 2021. She lives in New York.
Full list of sponsors:
The Illinois State University Department of English, The Sage Foundation (ISU)., SRPR (Spoon River Poetry Review), Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora, The Illinois Wesleyan University Department of English, The Endowment of the R. Forrest Colwell Chair of English (IWU), The Endowment of the Robert W. Harrington Professorship (IWU), The Office of Diversity and Inclusion (IWU), The Alpha Eta Pi Chapter of Sigma Tau Delta (IWU), Lyrical Graffiti (IWU), Tributaries (IWU), the President’s Office (IWU), and the Provost’s Office (IWU).
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Normal Theater, 209 W North St,Normal,IL,United States