Poet Naomi Shihab Nye to Give Lecture and Poetry Reading at Kent State

Award-winning poet Naomi Shihab Nye
will speak two nights at Kent State
University as part of the Guest of Honor
Artist/Lecture Series and the Wick Poetry
Center Reading Series. 

Award-winning poet Naomi Shihab Nye will speak two nights at Kent State University as part of the Guest of Honor Artist/Lecture Series and the Wick Poetry Center Reading Series.

Nye will deliver a guest lecture at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 28 and give a poetry reading at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 29 co-sponsored by the Honors College and May 4 Visitors Center. Both events will be held in the Kent Student Center Kiva, and are free and open to the public.

The two evening events will celebrate a global conversation through poetry, and engage Kent State and Northeast Ohio communities with a unique opportunity for discussion.

"Naomi Shihab Nye is truly a poet of the world, giving voice to our shared humanity across borders, reminding us that our ‘longing for connection' should be ‘the flag of one’s true country,’" says David Hassler, director of Kent State’s Wick Poetry Center.

The Guest of Honor University Artist/Lecture Series brings world-renowned speakers to Kent State to connect with the community, and the Wick Reading Series invites nationally acclaimed poets to read their work. For the first time, these two series intersect with Nye’s work.

Nye is the author and/or editor of more than 30 volumes, including her new children’s novel, The Turtle of Oman. The novel was chosen for both a Best Book of 2014 by the Horn Book and a 2015 Notable Children's Book by the American Library Association. Throughout her career, Nye has earned many honors. In January 2010, Nye was elected to the Board of Chancellors of the Academy of American Poets, and was named laureate of the 2013 NSK Neustadt Prize for Children’s Literature.

For more information about the Wick Poetry Center Reading Series, visit www.kent.edu/wick/reading-series.