Pulitzer Prize Winning Poet Coming to Trinity

What: Yusef Komunyakaa, a Pulitzer Prize-winning poet and Professor and Distinguished Senior Poet at New York University, is Trinity College’s Poet-In-Residence for 2008.  On Thursday, March 6, he will give a poetry reading on campus with a reception and book signing to follow; on Friday, March 7, he will host a community workshop where people are invited to talk, learn, and work with Komunyakaa; and on Saturday, March 8, veterans are invited to an informal discussion with Komunyakaa about the challenges and rewards of writing about military experiences.

When/Where:
Thursday, March 6, 2008 ~ 7 p.m. at the Rittenberg Lounge in Mather Hall
Friday, March 7, 2008 ~ 2 p.m. in the Alumni Lounge in Mather Hall
Saturday, March 8, 2008 ~ 1 p.m. at 115 Allen Place on the Trinity College campus

Background: Yusef Komunyakaa was born in 1947 in Bogalusa, Louisiana. The eldest of five children, Komunyakaa uses his childhood experiences as the backdrop for many of his works: his familial relationships, and his maturation in a rural Southern community. The musical environment afforded by the proximity of New Orleans provides the fundamental themes for several of his volumes.

In 1965, he enlisted in the Army and began a tour of duty in Vietnam. While there, he started writing. As a correspondent for and later editor of the military newspaper, The Southern Cross, Komunyakaa mastered a journalistic style that he would later use to write poems about his time at war. He was awarded the Bronze Star for his work on the newspaper.
Komunyakaa’s second book of poems, Dien Cai Dau, has been praised as an expression of African-American soldiers’ experiences in Vietnam and as a work that acknowledges the common humanity shared by white and black soldiers.

Komunyakaa says this of a poet’s quest: "A sort of unearthing has to take place; sometimes one has to remove layers of facades and superficialities. The writer has to get down to the guts of the thing and rediscover the basic timbre of his or her existence."

In addition to his work as a poet, Komunyakaa also took on the role of educator, teaching poetry in the public school system in New Orleans. He has taught at Princeton University.

These events are free and open to the public.  For more information visit http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/22 or contact at Clare.Rossini@trincoll.edu or 860-297-2360.  Please send RSVP to Rossini.  Reservations are not necessary but are appreciated.