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Course & Subject Guides

Center for African American Poetry and Poetics (CAAPP) & the ULS Collection

A guide to the signed books by CAAPP event authors that are held in the University Library System collection.

Close Reading the Emergency! (Part Two) - March 2023

graphic of close reading the emergency

CAAPP’s spring Black Study series “Close Reading the Emergency! (Part Two)” will run the week of March 20th-24th and consist of two exciting, on-campus main events.
 
Wed. March 22nd: Marwa Helal & Quenton Baker in Creative Conversation, 6:00pm at Heinz Chapel

Thu. March 23rd: Evie Shockley & Damon Young in Creative Conversation, 6:00pm at Heinz Chapel


Poet and essayist Marwa Helal


Poet Quenton Baker

 


 

Poet and Pulitzer Prize Finalist Evie Shockley

 

Essayist and memoirist Damon Young


 

Marwa Helal

Author of Ante body (Nightboat, 2022)

Invasive Species (Nightboat, 2020)

 

Quenton Baker

ballast (Haymarket, April 2023)

Banana [ ______ ] / we pilot the blood (2021)

 

Evie Shockley

Suddenly We (March 2023);

Semiautomatic (2017);

Renegade Poetics: Black Aesthetics and Formal Innovation in African American Poetry (2011);

The New Black (2011);

A half-red sea (2006);

The Gorgon Goddess (2001)

 

Damon Young

What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker (Ecco, 2019)

graphic of close reading with author photos

Close Reading The Emergency!: Marwa Helal & Quenton Baker in Creative Conversation

Poets Marwa Helal & Quenton Baker will read fresh work, share creative conversation, & participate in an audience Q&A. Together, in black study, they will work to close read the contemporary emergency. There will be a book-signing in partnership White Whale Bookstore to follow.

Marwa Helal was born in Al Mansurah, Egypt. She earned her BA in journalism and international studies from Ohio Wesleyan University and her MFA in creative nonfiction from The New School. She is the author of Ante body (Nightboat Books, 2022), Invasive species (Nightboat Books, 2019), the chapbook I AM MADE TO LEAVE I AM MADE TO RETURN (No Dear, 2017) and a Belladonna chaplet (2021). Her work appears in the journals Apogee, Hyperallergic, Boston Review, Poets & Writers, Winter Tangerine, and the anthologies Bettering American Poetry volumes 2 and 3, Best American Experimental Writing 2018, Brooklyn Poets Anthology, Halal If You Hear Me, and BreakBeat Poets: Black Girl Magic. She has edited the Poetry Project’s Newsletter and serves on the advisory board of The Offing.

Helal is the winner of BOMB Magazine’s Biennial 2016 Poetry Contest and has been awarded fellowships from the Whiting Foundation, New York Foundation of the Arts, Jerome Foundation, Poets House, Brooklyn Poets, and Cave Canem, among others. She has presented her work at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Brooklyn Museum, and the Guggenheim Museum.

Quenton Baker is a poet, educator, and Cave Canem fellow. Their current focus is black interiority and the afterlife of slavery. Their work has appeared in The Offing, Jubilat, Vinyl, The Rumpus and elsewhere. They are a two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, and the recipient of the 2018 Arts Innovator Award from Artist Trust. They were a 2019 Robert Rauschenberg Artist in Residence and a 2021 NEA Fellow. They are the author of we pilot the blood (The 3rd Thing, 2021) and ballast (Haymarket Books, 2023).

Location and Address:

Heinz Chapel
University of Pittsburgh
South Bellefield Avenue
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213

graphic of close reading the emergency

Close Reading The Emergency!: Evie Shockley & Damon Young in Creative Conversation

Poet Evie Shockley & creative nonfiction writer Damon Young will read fresh work, share creative conversation, & participate in an audience Q&A. Together, in black study, they will work to close read the contemporary emergency. There will be a book-signing in partnership White Whale Bookstore to follow.

Born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, poet Evie Shockley earned a BA at Northwestern University, a JD at the University of Michigan, and a PhD in English literature at Duke University. The author of several collections of poetry, including a half-red sea (2006) and the new black (2011), Shockley is also the author of the critical volume Renegade Poetics: Black Aesthetics and Formal Innovation in African American Poetry (2011). Her poetry and essays have been featured in several anthologies, including Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry (2009), Poets on Teaching: A Sourcebook (2010), A Broken Thing: Contemporary Poets on the Line (2011), and Contemporary African American Literature: The Living Canon (2013). Her new collection, suddenly we will be published March 7, 2023 by Wesleyan University Press.

Damon Young is the author of “What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays”--a tragicomic exploration of the angsts, anxieties, and absurdities of existing while Black in America, and the winner of Thurber Prize for American Humor and the Barnes & Noble Discover Award.

He is also the co-founder of the culture blog VerySmartBrothas and was a contributing columnist for The Washington Post Magazine, a contributing opinion writer for the New York Times, and a columnist for GQ. He has written for the Atlantic, Esquire, NY Mag, The Undefeated, Lit Hub, Ebony, and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Currently, Damon is the creator and host of a podcast with Crooked Media, “Stuck with Damon Young.”

Location and Address:

Heinz Memorial Chapel
University of Pittsburgh
South Bellefield Avenue
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213

helal and baker signing books

Marwa Helal and Quenton Baker signing their books on Hillman Library's 3rd floor.

shockley and young signing books

Evie Shockley and Damon Young signing their books on Hillman Library's 3rd floor.