The University of Arkansas Program in Creative Writing and Translation is proud to host poet Natalie Diaz as the 2016-17 Walton Visiting Writer in Poetry. Diaz will give a free public reading of her work at 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 26, in the auditorium of the Graduate Education Building on the U of A campus. All are welcome to attend.

Diaz is the author of the critically acclaimed collection, When My Brother was an Aztec. As a Mojave and an enrolled member of the Gila River Indian Tribe, Diaz weaves Spanish, English, and Mojave languages into an urgent and lyrical new poetic voice. Her work as been awarded the Nimrod/Hardman Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry, the Holmes National Poetry Prize from Princeton University, a US Artists Ford Fellowship, a Native Arts Council Foundation Artist Fellowship, and a Lannan Literary Fellowship, among other honors.

As director of the language preservation program at Fort Mojave, Diaz is an advocate for traditional Mojave language and culture. Her work has been featured on news outlets including PBS NewsHour.

Each year, the Walton Visiting Writers series in the Program in Creative Writing and Translation brings esteemed authors in poetry, fiction, and literary translation to the U of A to give free public readings and to work with graduate students in the creative writing M.F.A. program. Past Walton Writers include Chris Abani, Caryl Phillips, Franz Wright, Marian Schwartz, and Karen Tei Yamashita.

This event is made possible by the Program in Creative Writing and Translation, the J. William Fulbright College of Arts & Sciences, the Department of English, and the Walton Family Foundation.