Sherwin Bitsui to Give Poetry Reading at Williams College

Media contact: Noelle Lemoine, communications assistant; tele: (413) 597-4277; email: [email protected]

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., February 10, 2016—Sherwin Bitsui, a Navajo poet, will give a reading of his works at Williams College on Wednesday, Feb. 17, at 4:30 p.m. in Griffin Hall, room 3. The event is free and open to the public. Copies of Bitsui’s books will be available for sale by Water Street Books.

Bitsui is originally from the Navajo Reservation in White Cone, Ariz. Steeped in Native American culture, mythology, and history, his poems reveal the tensions in the intersection of Native American and contemporary urban culture. He is the author of critically acclaimed poetry collections Shapeshift (University of Arizona Press, 2003) and Flood Song (Copper Canyon Press, 2009). For his work, Bitsui has received a Whiting Writers’ Award, a grant from the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry, a Truman Capote Creative Writing Fellowship, and a Lannan Literary Fellowship. He holds an A.F.A. from the Institute of American Indian Arts Creative Writing Program.

Bitsui’s reading is part of the new speaker series “Indigenous Interventions: Rethinking Native America” in the American Studies program. It is co-sponsored by the American Studies Program, the Department of English, and the Comparative Literature Program.

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For building locations on the Williams campus, please consult the map outside the driveway entrance to the Security Office located in Hopkins Hall on Main Street (Rte. 2), next to the Thompson Memorial Chapel, or call the Office of Communications (413) 597-4277. The map can also be found on the web at www.williams.edu/map

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