Why We Fall in Love with a Poet: A Reading with Nikky Finney and Nancy K. Pearson
What moves us about the writing of certain poets? Is it when they name a truth or describe our lives or help us look at familiar situations in new ways? Perugia Press, the Jones Library, and Everywoman's Center present a poetry reading with Nikky Finney, who fell in love with Nancy Pearson's poetry while judging manuscripts for the Perugia Press Prize last year. Finney will read her own work as well as introduce Nancy, whose Two Minutes of Light went on to win the 2008 Perugia Press Prize. After Pearson's reading from her award-winning book, there will be a discussion with Nikky Finney and Nancy Pearson about "why we fall in love with a poet." Refreshments and a book signing will follow the reading. This event is free, open to the public and wheelchair accessible.
Born to a civil rights attorney and a teacher in the small fishing and farming community of Conway, South Carolina, Nikky Finney has been writing for as long as she has memory. Her poems are powerful and warm, like her southern roots, and provide glimpses into the human adventures of birth, death, family, violence, sexuality, and relationship, exploring the soul of human community. Her book of poetry was awarded the Pen American Book award. She is the 2007-2009 Graze Hazard Conkling Writer-in-Residence at Smith College.
Nancy K. Pearson, is originally from Chattanooga, Tennessee. In Two Minutes of Light, she writes about a descent into the madness of addiction, suicide attempts, and self-mutilation, and how the foil to these destructive ways is art itself — her gift for finding small beauty in unlikely places and transforming it into poetry.
Everywoman's Center (EWC) is a multicultural campus-based women's center established in 1972. Perugia Press is an independent, not-for-profit literary press publishing one collection of poetry each year. The Jones Library on Amity Street in Amherst is the town's public library. For more information, contact info@perugiapress.com.