Poet Joanne Diaz and author Ian Morris will give a talk and present readings at Illinois State University on Friday, November 6. Both events are free and open to the public.
The duo, who co-edited the collection The Little Magazine in Contemporary America, will give a talk at 3 p.m. at the Publications Unit in Williams Hall Annex on campus. They will discuss the book, which examines literary journal publishing at a time when the field is experiencing unprecedented changes.
Later that evening at 7:30 p.m. in University Galleries at Uptown Station in Normal, both authors will read from recently published books. Diaz will read poetry from her Brittingham Prize-winning collection My Favorite Tyrants, and Morris will read from his satirical novel, When Bad Things Happen to Rich People, which was a finalist for the Midwest Book Award. The authors will sign books following the reading.
Diaz’s poems have appeared in AGNI, American Poetry Review, DIAGRAM, the Greensboro Review, the Missouri Review, Prairie Schooner, the Southern Review, and Third Coast. She is the recipient of fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Sustainable Arts Foundation. She is the author of The Lessons, which won the Gerald Cable First Book Award. She is an associate professor of English at Illinois Wesleyan University.
Morris has taught courses on literature, writing, and publishing at Lake Forest College in Illinois and Columbia College Chicago. He was managing editor of TriQuarterly magazine for over a decade and is the founding editor of Fifth Star Press.
The events are part of PUB.UNIT Presents series, sponsored by Illinois State’s Publications Unit. The series hosts noted writers-who-are-editors/editors-who-are-writers to talk about how embracing those dual roles impacts their work and careers.
For more information, contact Publications Unit Director Steve Halle at cshalle@ilstu.edu, or (309) 438-7481.
