UA’s Bankhead Visiting Writers Series Welcomes Natasha Trethewey and Larissa Szporluk

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Natasha Trethewey and Larissa Szporluk will read selections from their latest works on Dec. 4 beginning at 7:30 p.m. in 205 Smith Hall on The University of Alabama campus as part of the Bankhead Visiting Writers Series.

Trethewey is the author of two books of poetry, “Domestic Work” and “Belloq’s Ophelia” (Graywolf, 2002). Her poems have appeared in the Kenyon Review, the Southern Review, New England Review, Gettysburg Review and “The Best American Poetry” anthologies for 2000 and 2003.

She also is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Alabama Council on the Arts and the Bunting Fellowship at Harvard. Trethewey received her MFA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and currently serves as an associate professor of English and creative writing at Emory University in Atlanta.

Szporluk is the author of “Dark Sky Question” and “Isolato,” which won the 2001 Iowa Poetry Prize. A third collection of poetry, “The Wind, Master Cherry, The Wind” (Alice James Books), was published in September. Her poems most recently have appeared in Meridian, Daedalus and Faultline magazines. Her work also has been anthologized in “Take Three” by Graywolf Press and “Best American Poetry” in 1999 and 2001.

She is the recipient of a literature fellowship in poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts for 2003-2004. Szporluk received her MFA from the University of Virginia and is an assistant professor of creative writing and literature at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.

The Bankhead Visiting Writers Series is made possible by an endowment from the Bankhead Foundation, The University of Alabama’s program in creative writing, the department of English and the College of Arts and Sciences. For more information, please contact UA’s creative writing program at 205/348-0766 or visit www.bama.ua.edu/~writing.