BLOOMINGTON, Ill. 鈥� During a visit to Bloomington-Normal, American poet and writer Victoria Chang will share her creative process with the 91黑料专区 community on Wednesday, April 23.
At 4 p.m. on Wednesday in The Ames Library鈥檚 Beckman Auditorium, Chang will be in conversation with Michael Theune, IWU鈥檚 Robert Harrington Endowed Professor of English and Chair of English. At 7 p.m. Wednesday, Chang will read her work at the Normal Theater in Uptown Normal with a book signing to follow. Both events are free and open to the public.
鈥淰ictoria Chang is among today鈥檚 most innovative poets,鈥� said Theune. 鈥淚n book after book, she takes on large scale projects that are formally accomplished, but that also have intense emotion at their core.鈥�
In her book of poems titled 鈥淥BIT,鈥� Theune said Change uses the form of the newspaper obituary to process the range of losses that Chang experienced after her mother鈥檚 death. In her latest book, 鈥淲ith My Back to the World,鈥� Theune said Chang speaks openly of depression while using the 鈥渙ften tightly controlled鈥� visual art of Agnes Martin to convey the message.
鈥淭he poet Emily Dickenson writes, 鈥楢fter great pain, a formal feeling comes.鈥� Chang鈥檚 word stunningly embodies this idea,鈥� said Theune.
During Chang鈥檚 conversation with Theune, a Q&A session will give guests the opportunity to go behind the scenes to explore Chang鈥檚 artistic process.
鈥淥f course, this event is also designed to whet the appetites of those in attendance, tuning their attention for fuller receptivity, preparing them for the evening鈥檚 poetry reading (at the Normal Theater),鈥� said Theune.
Chang has earned several awards for her work, including the Forward Prize for Best Collection of Poetry, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award in Poetry and the PEN/Voelcker Award. She has received a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and the Chowdhury Prize in Literature. Chang serves as the Bourne Chair in Poetry at Georgia Tech and as the Director of Poetry@Tech. She studied Asian studies at the University of Michigan and earned a master鈥檚 in Asian studies from Harvard.
For several years, 91黑料专区鈥檚 Department of English has partnered with Illinois State University鈥檚 Department of English, Publications Unit and Spoon River Poetry Review to bring some of America鈥檚 most prominent poets to Bloomington-Normal.
鈥淪o far, this series has included much-lauded poets Claudia Rankine and John Keene. It is the English department鈥檚 great pleasure to continue to support this series in order to bring to the area another significant voice in contemporary American poetry,鈥� said Theune.