Prominent African-American poet Jay Wright will give a poetry reading at Marquette University on Tuesday, Oct. 25, at 3:30 p.m. as part of their forum series.
Praised for its evocative language, introspective tone and mythological imagery, Wright’s work has won many honors, including the Lannan Literary Award for Poetry, Guggenheim and MacArthur fellowships and Yale University’s prestigious Bollingen Prize.
His plays, essays and poetry generally focus on a rediscovery of African-American heritage through historical study and personal experience.
Wright’s recent work includes the book-length poems The Presentable Art of Reading Absence (2008), Polynomials and Pollen: Parables, Proverbs, Paradigms, and Praise for Lois (2008) and the collection Disorientations: Groundings (2013).
Born in 1934 in New Mexico, Wright’s early exposure to Mexican, Spanish and Navajo cultures has had a lasting effect on his poetry. His poems explore history from this multicultural standpoint and often take the form of allegorical journeys and spiritual quests.
Wright also will return in 2017 for an event that will feature a reading of one of his plays.
