Aracelis Girmay 2009 GLCA New Writers Poetry Award Winner

2009-2010 Reading Series
All events are free and open to the public

Monday, November 23, 2009

Wendell Will Room (inside Stockwell-Mudd Library)
5:30 p.m.

Aracelis Girmay is the winner of the 2009 GLCA New Writers Award for Teeth, a collection of poetry that reflects her Eritrean, Puerto Rican and African American traditions.  Nicholasa Mohr writes, "the poems of Aracelis Girmay ring out with a burning truth as she transports the reader into the world of despair, discrimination, sorrows, triumphs, joy and the courage it takes to flourish as a woman of color."  Martin Espada calls her poetry "hard, cutting, brilliant, beautiful. . . so strong, so brave, so lyrical, so fiery, so joyful, that the usual superlatives fail."  A former Watson fellow and Cave Canem fellow, Girmay has published extensively in journals and literary magazines including Ploughshares, Indiana Review, and Callaloo, and is the author of a children's book, "Changing, Changing: Story and Collages."  Born and raised in Southern California, Girmay now leads community writing workshops throughout California and New York.

A reception and book-signing will immediately follow the reading.

Co-sponsored by the English Department and Stockwell-Mudd Library.