What: Poet Paisley Rekdal, winner of the 2013 UNT Rilke Prize sponsored by the University of North Texas Creative Writing Program, reads from her work in Animal Eye at UNT. Part of the UNT Department of English's Visiting Writers Series
When: 8 p.m April 9 (Tuesday)
Where: Golden Eagle Suite on the third level of UNT's University Union, located one block west of Welch and West Prairie streets (1155 Union Circle)
Cost: Free
Contact: Lisa Vining in the UNT Department of English Creative Writing Program, 940-369-5981 or lisa.vining@unt.edu
DENTON (UNT), Texas -- Paisley Rekdal, who recently became the second winner of the $10,000 UNT Rilke Prize sponsored by the University of North Texas’ Creative Writing Program, will read selections from "Animal Eye," the poetry collection for which she received the prize, at UNT April 9 (Tuesday). The book was published by the University of Pittsburg Press in 2012 and was voted one of the five best poetry collections for 2012 by Publisher Weekly.
Rekdal’s free poetry reading will begin at 8 p.m. in the Golden Eagle Suite on the third level of UNT's University Union, which is located one block west of Welch and West Prairie streets (1155 Union Circle). Her visit to UNT will include a question-and-answer session with students at 4 p.m. The session will take place in Room 316 of UNT’s Language Building, which is located on the southwest corner of Avenue B and West Hickory Street (108 Avenue A). Rekdal’s visit is part of the Visiting Writers Series sponsored by the UNT Department of English.
In February, Rekdal was announced as the second winner of the UNT Rilke Prize, which recognizes a book of poetry published during the previous year that ”demonstrates exceptional artistry and vision written by a mid-career poet.” The Creative Writing faculty at UNT named the prize for the early 20th-century German poet Rainer Maria Rilke, who is best known for his ”Duino Elegies,” written from 1912 to 1922.
The judges for the UNT Rilke Prize are Corey Marks, professor of English and Bruce Bond, Regents Professor of English. They describe Rekdal’s Animal Eye as “exploring the fundamental hunger for light, for ever greater perspective and revelation.”
The UNT Rilke Prize is awarded each year, with the winner presenting a reading from his or her poetry collection that ends the Visiting Writers Series for the spring semester. The winner also makes at least one public appearance in the Dallas-Fort Worth area outside of Denton. Rekdal will read from Animal Eye at a reception April 10 (Wednesday) at the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Cultures. This event is free and open to the public.
In addition, Rekdal will be the final judge for the Voertman Academy of American Poets Prize, which is endowed by Denton businessman Paul Voertman and awarded to a current creative writing graduate student in the UNT Department of English. Rekdal will recognize the winner during her reading on April 9 (Tuesday) and present him or her with a prize of $200.
A professor of English at the University of Utah at Salt Lake City, Rekdal has also been honored with a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship, a Pushcart Prize, a Village Voice Writers on the Verge Award, and a Fulbright Fellowship to South Korea. Her work has been included in numerous anthologies, including Legitimate Dangers: American Poets of the New Century (2006) and the 2010 Pushcart Prize Anthology.
In addition to her poetry collections, Rekdal is the author of a book of essays, The Night My Mother Met Bruce Lee: Observations on Not Fitting In; Intimate, a hybrid-genre photo-text memoir that combines poetry, fiction, nonfiction and photography; and three previous books of poetry: A Crash of Rhinos, Six Girls Without Pants, and The Invention of the Kaleidoscope.
Note to editor: Picture of Rekdal can be downloaded here.