Verse Like Water: The visiting poet program of Central Lakes College presents Major Jackson at noon on May 2 in the Chalberg Theatre, CLC’s Brainerd campus. The event is free and open to the public.
Jackson is a significant voice in contemporary American poetry, and he will be reading from his four books, and offer a craft talk after the book signing. He is a recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, Pushcart Prize, and a Whiting Writers’ Award, and he has been honored by the National Endowment for the Arts, Pew Fellowship in the Arts and the Witter Bynner Foundation in conjunction with the Library of Congress. Jackson is also a professor at the University of Vermont and he is the editor of the Harvard Poetry Review.
“Major Jackson, like the previous poets Verse Like Water has hosted, is a writer who pays fierce attention to the world,” said Jeff Johnson, CLC English instructor and proprietor of Verse Like Water. “He joyfully uses his vast skills with language to make poems to show us what life is like in these early years of the 21st century. Narrative, and the natural world matter to him, but what really is important to Major is illuminating the interior lives of ordinary, even tiny human beings. Every one of his poems is worth it, even the ones that have hard and even dramatic landings.”
This reading will conclude the programming for this school year, and renowned poet Billy Collins kicks off the seventh year of Verse Like Water this September. Support comes from the CLC English Department, Five Wings Arts Council and Minnesota Public Radio.