Virginia Poet Laureate Emerita Luisa A. Igloria (2020–2022), author of Maps for Migrants and Ghosts (Co-winner, 2019 Crab Orchard Open Poetry Prize) and The Buddha Wonders If She Is Having a Mid-life Crisis (2018), is the keynote speaker for EMU’s Academic and Creative Excellence (ACE) Festival.
Igloria will deliver a keynote “reading address” titled “What Poetry Offers: More Than Feeling” on Wednesday, April 19, 2023 from 7–8 p.m. in Lehman Auditorium and virtually on EMU’s Facebook page. The address invites audiences to consider how language, technique, practice and revision can be used to affect the meaning and impact of a poem. The event is open to the public and includes a reception and book signing from 8–9 p.m. in the Brunk Maust Lounge in the Campus Center. Three collections of Igloria’s poetry will be for sale.
Igloria teaches at Old Dominion University where she is a Louis I. Jaffe professor of English and creative writing in the MFA Program, which she directed from 2009–2015. She also leads workshops for and is a member of the board of The Muse Writers Center in Norfolk, Virginia.
Igloria is the inaugural recipient of the 2015 Resurgence Poetry Prize (U.K.), the world’s first major award for ecopoetry; a panel headed by former U.K. Poet Laureate Andrew Motion selected her for the prize. In July 2020, she was appointed Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia, serving a two-year term. In April 2021, she received one of 23 Poet Laureate Fellowships from the Academy of American Poets to support a program of public poetry projects.
Find Luisa A. Igloria on social media:
- Website: www.luisaigloria.com
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/VAPoetLaureate2020
- Instagram: @poetslizard
- Twitter: @ThePoetsLizard
Igloria’s visit is being hosted by the Provost’s Office. The ACE Festival is generously sponsored by these partnering businesses:
