Award-winning poet Marilyn Nelson to give poetry reading at Goshen College April 1

37^th annual Goshen College S.A. Yoder Lecture: Poetry reading by Marilyn Nelson
Date and time: Tuesday, April 1 at 7:30 p.m.
Location: Rieth Recital Hall, Goshen College Music Center
Cost: Free and open to the public
Event sponsor: Goshen College S.A. Yoder Lecture

GOSHEN, Ind. – Known for her sensitive and evocative treatments of African-American history and experience as well as her mastery of poetry, Marilyn Nelson will present her work at Goshen College on Tuesday, April 1 at 7:30 p.m. in the Music Center’s Rieth Recital Hall as the 37^th annual S.A. Yoder Lecturer. The poetry reading is free and open to the public, and will be followed by a reception and book signing.

Nelson is the author or translator of 12 books and three shorter chapbooks of poetry. She writes both for adults and young adults, and has won numerous awards for her work in each category. Nelson has also had a life-long interest in Christian spirituality that permeates all of her work. She is a professor emeritus of English at the University of Connecticut; founder and director of Soul Mountain Retreat, a small writers’ colony; and (2001–2006) Poet Laureate of the State of Connecticut.

Among her work for adults are her poetry collection “The Homeplace,” “The Fields Of Praise: New And Selected Poems” and “The Cachoeira Tales and Other Poems.” Among Nelson’s poetry collections for young adults, each beautifully illustrated by a distinguished artist and illustrator, are “Carver: A Life In Poems,” “Fortune’s Bones,” “A Wreath For Emmett Till” and “Miss Crandall’s School for Young Ladies and Little Misses of Color,” a series of sonnets that imaginatively explores a historic experiment in education for African-American girls.

Nelson’s honors include two NEA creative writing fellowships, the 1990 Connecticut Arts Award, an A.C.L.S. Contemplative Practices Fellowship, a Fulbright Teaching Fellowship and a fellowship from the J.S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

The S.A. Yoder Lecture Series honors Dr. Samuel A. Yoder, a professor at Goshen College from 1930 to 1935 and again from 1946 until his death in 1970. During his career, he was a Fulbright lecturer at Anatolia College in Greece, Smith-Mundt lecturer at the University of Hue in Vietnam, visiting professor at Taiwan University in Formosa, welfare officer under the United Nations in Egypt and Goshen College Study-Service Term leader in Jamaica. Gifts to the series by his family, students and friends have made the endowed lectureship possible.

Previous S.A. Yoder lecturers have included Nobel Prize winner Seamus Heaney, Newberry Award Winner Madeleine L’Engle, humorist Garrison Keillor, Haitian fiction writer Edwidge Danticat, Indiana essayist Scott Russell Sanders and the late American poet Denise Levertov.

Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, contact Goshen College News Bureau Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.

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Goshen College, established in 1894, is a residential Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college’s Christ-centered core values – passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron’s Best Buys in Education, “Colleges of Distinction,” “Making a Difference College Guide” and U.S.News & World Report’s “America’s Best Colleges” edition, which named Goshen a “least debt college.” Visit www.goshen.edu.