Renowned Poet, MacArthur Fellow Claudia Rankine to Give Free Reading

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Award-winning author Claudia Rankine will give a free reading of her poetry as the 2016 Distinguished Reader for the University of Arkansas Program in Creative Writing and Translation. The event takes place at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27 in the Fayetteville Public Library, in conjunction with Fayetteville’s True Lit literary festival.

The reading is open to the public. No advance tickets are required.

“Claudia Rankine is more than an esteemed poet. She’s an oracle of our age, charged with reflecting—brutally and truthfully—on critical social issues: race, privilege, personal identity,” said Davis McCombs, director of the Program in Creative Writing and Translation. “To bring such a powerful author to Fayetteville feels both remarkable and right.”

This fall, Rankine was named a 2016 MacArthur Fellow—an honor commonly known as the “genius grant.” She’s the author of five collections of poetry. Her most recent volume, Citizen: An American Lyric, won both critical and popular acclaim and has become a touchstone in the national conversation about race.

The book won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry, where it gained the distinction of being the first book ever to be nominated in both the poetry and criticism categories. Other awards for the collection include the NAACP Award, the PEN Open Book Award and the PEN Literary Award. It was a finalist for the 2014 National Book Award.

In addition to her poetry, Rankine has authored plays, edited anthologies and collaborated in video productions. Her work has been described as crossing genres, but its effect is less a conscious rejection of boundaries than a willingness to let expression find the form it requires. 

Among Rankine’s many honors are fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Academy of American Poets and the Lannan Foundation. In 2014, she was awarded the $50,000 Poets & Writers Jackson Poetry Prize, which honors an American poet of exceptional talent who deserves greater recognition.

She teaches at the University of Southern California, where she is the Aerol Arnold Chair in the Department of English.

Rankine’s reading is one of many events slated for Fayetteville’s True Lit literary festival, Oct. 17-27, which also features an author talk by Newbery Award-winning writer Louis Sachar. The festival is organized by numerous local partners, including the Fayetteville Public Library and Fayetteville Public Schools. For a full schedule and more information, visit the True Lit website.

Founded in 1966, the University of Arkansas Program in Creative Writing and Translation in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences consistently ranks in the top 40 MFA programs nationwide, according to Poets & Writers magazine. The Atlantic Monthly named the U of A among the “Top Five Most Innovative” MFA programs in the nation. Noteworthy graduates include Barry Hannah, C.D. Wright, Lucinda Roy, and Nic Pizzolatto.

The U of A Program in Creative Writing and Translation Distinguished Readers Series is made possible by the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of English, the Walton Family Foundation and the James E. and Ellen Wadley Roper Professorship in Creative Writing.

About the University of Arkansas: The University of Arkansas provides an internationally competitive education for undergraduate and graduate students in more than 200 academic programs. The university contributes new knowledge, economic development, basic and applied research, and creative activity while also providing service to academic and professional disciplines. The Carnegie Foundation classifies the University of Arkansas among only 2 percent of universities in America that have the highest level of research activity. U.S. News & World Report ranks the University of Arkansas among its top American public research universities. Founded in 1871, the University of Arkansas comprises 10 colleges and schools and maintains a low student-to-faculty ratio that promotes personal attention and close mentoring.