National Book Award-winning poet and Princeton alumnus, Nathaniel Mackey, Class of 1969, reads from his work. Mackey is the author of numerous books and chapbooks of poetry, a multi-volume fiction work, two books of criticism, and co-editor of two anthologies. He has been recognized with a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize from the Poetry Foundation, the Bollingen Prize for American Poetry from the Beinecke Library at Yale University, and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Cosponsored by the Department of English with support from the Bain-Swiggett Fund, Department of English.
About Nathaniel Mackey
Nathaniel Mackey. Photo credit: Cybele Knowles
Born in Miami, Florida, in 1947, a Californian most of his life, and a resident of Durham, North Carolina, since 2010, Nathaniel Mackey is a poet, fiction writer, essayist, and editor. He received a B.A. from Princeton University in 1969 and a Ph.D. from Stanford University in 1975. He is the author of numerous books and chapbooks of poetry, most recently By Bent Light (The Bodily Press, 2025) and Double Trio (New Directions, 2021), a boxed set of three books: Tej Bet, So’s Notice and Nerve Church. He is also the author of a multi-volume fiction work, From a Broken Bottle Traces of Perfume Still Emanate, whose fifth and final volume is Late Arcade (New Directions, 2017), and two books of criticism, the most recent of which is Paracritical Hinge: Essays, Talks, Notes, Interviews (University of Wisconsin Press, 2005). He is the editor of the literary magazine Hambone, co-editor, with Art Lange, of the anthology Moment’s Notice: Jazz in Poetry and Prose (Coffee House Press, 1993), and co-editor, with Michael Bough, Kent Johnson and others, of the anthology Resist Much / Obey Little: Inaugural Poems to the Resistance (Dispatches Editions/Spuyten Duyvil, 2017). His honors include the National Book Award for poetry (2006), a Guggenheim Fellowship (2010), the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize from the Poetry Foundation (2014), the Bollingen Prize for American Poetry from the Beinecke Library at Yale University (2015), election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2018), and the Nicolás Cristobál Guillén Batista Lifetime Achievement Award from the Caribbean Philosophical Association (2024). He has taught at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, the University of Southern California, and the University of California, Santa Cruz. Mackey is currently the Reynolds Price Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at Duke University.
Admission & Details
The reading is free and open to the public. Free tickets required; available through University Ticketing.
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Directions
Get directions to the Hearst Dance Theater, located on the Forum level of the Lewis Arts complex.
Accessibility
The Hearst Dance Theater is an accessible venue with an assistive listening system. Visit our Venues and Studios section for accessibility information at our various locations. Guests in need of access accommodations are invited to contact the Lewis Center at 609-258-5262 or email LewisCenter@princeton.edu at least one week in advance of the event date.
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