Critic, editor, and prize-winning poet Kwame Dawes, author of twenty books of poetry including the forthcoming collection Sturge Town (Norton, 2024), will read from his work at 5:30 p.m. on November 28 in the Godfrey Kerr Studio at the Lewis Arts complex on the Princeton University campus. Ashley Hyun, Sal Kang, Sabrina Kim, Abbie Lambert, Kate Lee, and Ellen Li, seniors in Princeton’s Program in Creative Writing, will also read from their recent work. This event continues the 2023-2024 C.K. Williams Reading Series, named after the late Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award-winning poet C.K. Williams, who served on Princeton’s faculty for 20 years. The series showcases senior students of the Program in Creative Writing alongside established writers as special guests. The event is free and open to the public; however, tickets are required. Reserve tickets through University Ticketing. The Godfrey Kerr Studio is an accessible venue, and guests in need of access accommodations are invited to contact the Lewis Center at LewisCenter@princeton.edu at least one week prior to the event date.
Kwame Dawes. Photo Credit: A. Lambertson
Kwame Dawes, born in Ghana and raised in Jamaica, is a writer of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and plays. Among his many awards and honors are the Forward Prize for Poetry (1994), a Pushcart Prize (2001), the Musgrave Medal (2004), a Guggenheim Fellowship (2012), and the Windham-Campbell Prize for Poetry (2019). Dawes has also published two novels, edited several anthologies, and his essays have appeared in Bomb Magazine, The London Review of Books, Granta, Essence, World Literature Today, The Washington Post, USA Today, and elsewhere. He won an Emmy in 2009 for his contributions to the multimedia project, HOPE: Living and Loving with HIV in Jamaica, for the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. In 2022, Dawes was a finalist for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature and was awarded the Order of Distinction Commander class by the Government of Jamaica. Currently, Dawes is a George W. Holmes University Professor of English and teaches in the Pacific MFA Program. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a former Chancellor of the American Academy of Poets. In addition, Dawes is the Series Editor of the African Poetry Book Series, Director of the African Poetry Book Fund, and Artistic Director of the Calabash International Literary Festival. He blogs regularly for the Poetry Foundation.
The six seniors who will read from their work are among 31 Princeton students pursuing certificates in creative writing in addition to their major areas of study. Each is currently working on a novel, a screenplay, translations, or a collection of poems or short stories as part of their creative independent work for the certificate. Starting with the Class of 2025, students can earn a minor in creative writing, rather than a certificate, but will continue to complete a significant creative independent work. Students in the Program in Creative Writing work closely with a member of the faculty, which includes award-winning writers Michael Dickman, Katie Farris, Aleksandar Hemon, A.M. Homes, Ilya Kaminsky, Christina Lazaridi, Yiyun Li, Paul Muldoon, Patricia Smith, Susan Wheeler, and a number of distinguished lecturers and visiting professors.
Additional readings in the 2023-24 series include:
- Vauhini Vara on February 13
- Jake Skeets on March 19
Visit the Lewis Center website to learn more about the reading series, the Program in Creative Writing, and the more than 100 public performances, exhibitions, readings, screenings, concerts, and lectures presented each year by the Lewis Center for the Arts, most of them free.
