AWARD-WINNING POET, MEMOIRIST, AND CHILDRENS’ BOOK AUTHOR
TO READ FROM AND DISCUSS HIS WORK

NYS Writers Institute, Wednesday, April 12, 2017
8:00 p.m. Reading and McKinney Writing Contest Award | Biotech Auditorium, Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies Building, Rensselaer, (RPI), Troy


EVENT LISTING:
Gregory Pardlo, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, will read from his work on Wednesday, April 12 at 8:00 p.m. in the Biotech Auditorium, Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies Building, Rensselaer (RPI), Troy. The event is free and open to the public, and is cosponsored by the New York State Writers Institute in conjunction with Rensselaer’s 75th Annual McKinney Writing Contest and Reading.

PROFILE:
Gregory Pardlo received the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for his second collection Digest, which was also shortlisted for the 2015 NAACP Image Award and was a finalist for the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award. The Pulitzer Committee described Digest as “Clear-voiced poems that bring readers the news from 21st century America, rich with thought, ideas and histories public and private.” The editors of Jerry magazine called Digest “an exciting second book from a poet who is quietly crafting an insightful voice and deep portrayal of Americanness and humanity.” Tracy K. Smith, winner of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry praised Pardlo and the collection saying “…with lines that balance poise and a jam-packed visceral music…these poems are a showcase for Pardlo’s ample and agile mind, his courageous social conscience, and his mighty voice.” Poet and memoirist Nick Flynn described Digest as “a thrilling, brilliant and deeply moving ride.”

Totem (2007), Pardlo’s debut poetry volume, received the American Poetry Review Honickman First Book Prize. The autobiographical collection drifts between childhood and adult life, and is deeply rooted in the New Jersey blue collar world in which he grew up. In a review of Totem, poet Major Jackson said, “Pure and plain, Gregory Pardlo is an American metaphysician. … a poet whose vision is so wide, he’ll have readers in the distant future, contemplating his moral and formal choices relative to their own.” 

Pardlo’s poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Boston Review, The Nation, Ploughshares, and Tin House, as well as in several anthologies. He is an Associate Editor of the literary journal Callaloo, and his memoir in essays, Air Traffic, is forthcoming from Knopf.

For additional information, contact the Writers Institute at 518-442-5620 or online at https://www.albany.edu/writers-inst