Kwame Dawes
Organized and sponsored by the English Department, Africana Studies Department, and College of Arts and Sciences

Kwame Dawes is the author of twenty books of poetry and numerous other books of fiction, criticism, and essays. Currently, he teaches at the University of Nebraska and the Pacific MFA Program and acts as Glenna Luschei Editor for Prairie Schooner magazine. Throughout his long career, Dawes has received many accolades including the Forward Poetry Prize: Best First Collection in 1994, the Windham-Campbell Literature Prize in Poetry in 2019, and an Emmy for New Approaches to News & Documentary Programming: Arts, Lifestyle & Culture in 2009. Most recently, Dawes was named Literary Person of the Year by Brittle Paper, an honor that recognizes artists’ contributions to the advancement of the African literary industry and culture.

Dawes latest collection, City of Bones: A Testament, is the author’s twentieth collection and brings together lyrical, narrative, and elegiac poems that consider the existence of a historical African soul that resides within present day African-American and Caribbean sensibility. For a complete list of Dawes’ works, visit his website. The event will feature a half-hour poetry reading followed by a book signing.

This event is organized and sponsored by the Departments of English, Africana Studies and the College of Arts and Sciences in conjunction with the College’s 75th Anniversary celebration.