Events

Famous American Writers Christopher Merrill, Angie Cruz, Ayana Mathis, and Rosa Alcalá will meet with Ilia State University academic staff, students and alumni on Wednesday, June 29 at 16:00.

Moderator: Fulbright Scholar Niloufar Talebi

Famous American Writers Christopher Merrill, Angie Cruz, Ayana Mathis, and Rosa Alcalá in partnership with the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State, the International Writing Program are organizing a reading tour in Georgia due to its sparse history of literary liaisons with contemporary United States. The tour involves public readings, visits to universities and literary institutions, encounters with cultural personalities and media, and visits to places and events that increase their understanding of the historical and current affairs of the region. Writers are pleased to offer an opportunity to Ilia State University Faculty and Students to attend an in-person event held on Wednesday, June 29 at 16:00.”

Christopher Merrill (1957) is an American poet, essayist, journalist, and translator. He has published six collections of poetry, including Watch Fire, for which he received the Peter I. B. Lavan Younger Poets Award. He has published numerous translations, several edited volumes, and many books of nonfiction, two devoted to Walt Whitman. His critically acclaimed, Only the Nails Remain: Scenes from the Balkan Wars chronicles his ten war-time journeys to the Balkans from the years 1992 through 1996. Currently, he serves as director of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa.

Angie Cruz (1982) is a New York born Dominicana who traveled to and from NYC to D.R. for most of her formative years. Her novel, Dominicana was the inaugural book pick for GMA book club and chosen as the 2019/2020 Wordup Uptown Reads. Her fourth novel, How Not To Drown in A Glass of Water is forthcoming Fall 2022. She is the founder and Editor-in-chief of the award-winning literary journal, Aster(ix) and is currently a Professor at University of Pittsburgh. She divides her time between Pittsburgh, New York and Turin.

Rosa Alcalá born in Paterson, New Jersey to Spanish immigrants, is poet and translator from who has given readings, talks, and workshops in both the U.S. and Latin America. Her poems appear in numerous anthologies and journalsm and her most recent book of poetry, My OTHER TONGUE (2017), was described in the New York Times as capturing “the messy emotions and miscommunications that move between languages.” Recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Translation Fellowship and runner-up for a PEN Translation Award, she is a professor of creative writing at the University of Texas at El Paso, where she teaches in its Bilingual MFA Program.

Ayana Mathis’s first novel, The Twelve Tribes of Hattie was a New York Times Bestseller, and the second selection for Oprah’s Book Club 2.0. The book tells the story of the children of the Great Migration, the largest movement of people in US history as approximately 6 million Black people moved from the American South to Northern, Midwestern, and Western states throughout the 20th century to escape racism and pursue the American dream. She currently hosts and curates the Black Arts Dialogues series, a conversation series centered around art and Blackness and hosted by the African American and African Diasporic Studies Department at Columbia University.

Date and time: Wednesday, June 29 at 16:00

Working language: English, Georgian (simultaneous translation will be provided)

Attendance: Free for Ilia State University academic staff, students and graduates with pre-registration

Follow the link to register: https://bit.ly/39NUcI2

Registration deadline: June 27, 23:59

Information on the location of the event will be given to the participants who will confirm their desire to attend the meeting by June 27 in the form of e-mail and short text message.

2022