UMass Amherst Visiting Writers Series Hosts Poet CAConrad

AMHERST, Mass. – The University of Massachusetts Amherst’s MFA for Poets and Writers program presents a reading by poet CAConrad on Thursday, Feb. 8 at 8 p.m. in the Great Hall of Old Chapel.

Conrad is the author of nine books, including “While Standing in Line for Death” (Wave, 2017), “The Book of Frank” (Wave, 2010), which is now available in nine languages, and “ECODEVIANCE” (Wave, 2014), which won the 2015 Believer Magazine Book Award. Conrad’s other honors include fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, the Lannan Foundation, Banff, and RADAR.

According to Publisher’s Weekly, “Conrad consistently surprises, and few, if any, American poets are doing more visionary, disorienting, and wonderful work today.” Poet and professor Peter Gizzi of the MFA for Poets and Writers program calls Conrad “a force of nature and one of the finest poets working today.” Known for a focus on process and (soma)tic poetry rituals, Conrad conducts workshops on (soma)tic poetry and ecopoetics.

Conrad is reading as part of the MFA program’s Visiting Writers Series. Celebrating its 54^th year, the nationally renowned series presents emerging and established writers of poetry, fiction and nonfiction. The series is sponsored by the MFA for Poets and Writers and the Juniper Initiative, and made possible by support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the UMass Arts Council and the English department. The reading is free and open to the public.