Patricia Smith is the author of six critically acknowledged volumes of poetry, including National Book Award-finalist BLOOD DAZZLER (Coffee House Press), and National Poetry Series winner TEAHOUSE OF THE ALMIGHTY (Coffee House Press).
In her latest collection, INCENDIARY ART (Northwestern University Press), Smith confronts the tyranny against the black male body and the tenacious grief of mothers, envisioning, reenvisioning, and ultimately reinventing the role of witness with an incendiary fus...
Patricia Smith is the author of six critically acknowledged volumes of poetry, including National Book Award-finalist BLOOD DAZZLER (Coffee House Press), and National Poetry Series winner TEAHOUSE OF THE ALMIGHTY (Coffee House Press).
In her latest collection, INCENDIARY ART (Northwestern University Press), Smith confronts the tyranny against the black male body and the tenacious grief of mothers, envisioning, reenvisioning, and ultimately reinventing the role of witness with an incendiary fusion of forms—from prose poems to sestinas and sonnets.
In her Word Works talk—"The Anatomy of a New Book"—Smith will focus on her process completing INCENDIARY ART and other recent collections, walking us through the conception, trajectory, and difficulties of crafting a cohesive manuscript.
Following her talk, poet and educator Quenton Baker, who is a former student of Patricia's, will lead a Q&A.
$12 general admission | $10 Hugo House member | $5 student
*Note: Tickets will not be available online the day of the event. Tickets at the door will be based on availability and will cost $15 for general, member, or student.
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PATRICIA SMITH is the author of SHOULDA BEEN JIMI SAVANNAH; BLOOD DAZZLER, a National Book Award finalist; TEAHOUSE OF THE ALMIGHTY, a National Poetry Series winner (all from Coffee House Press); CLOSE TO DEATH and BIG TOWNS, BIG TALK (both from Zoland Books); and LIFE ACCORDING TO MOTOWN (Tia Chucha Press), among others. She is a Cave Canem faculty member, a professor of English at CUNY/College of Staten Island, and a faculty member of the Sierra Nevada MFA program.
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QUENTON BAKER‘s work has appeared or is forthcoming in anthologies such as Measure for Measure: An Anthology of Poetic Meters and It Was Written: Poetry Inspired by Hip-Hop. He has a chapbook, Diglossic in the Second America from Punch Press, and his book, THIS GLITTERING REPUBLIC, is forthcoming from Willow Books. He has an MFA in Poetry from the University of Southern Maine, and he writes poetry reviews for Poet by Poet.
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About Word Works:
For those who sit and stare in wonder at a sentence, a turn of phrase, or a particularly great execution of a literary device, marveling at how they could come about, Word Works talks show writers at their most revealing, with live close-readings demonstrating different facets of writing to illuminate the page for both writers and readers.