Price Caldwell Visiting Writers Series continues with Sept. 18 reading at MSU
Contact: Sasha Steinberg
STARKVILLE, Miss.—Ohio-based poet Maggie Smith will deliver a public reading Monday [Sept. 18] as part of the Mississippi State University Department of English’s Price Caldwell Visiting Writers Series.
Free to all, Smith’s presentation begins at 7:30 p.m. in Mitchell Memorial Library’s third-floor John Grisham Room. A public reception and book signing will follow.
Established through an endowment from widow Alice Carol Caldwell and family, the Price Caldwell Visiting Writers Series serves as a memorial to Tutweiler native Price Caldwell, who served for more than 20 years as an MSU associate professor of English and died in 2015. He also founded and directed the university’s creative writing program, along with serving as president and vice president for the Southern Literary Festival organization.
A freelance writer and editor, Smith is the author of three books of poetry: “Good Bones” (Tupelo Press, September 2017); “The Well Speaks of Its Own Poison” (Tupelo Press, 2015); and “Lamp of the Body” (Red Hen Press, 2005). She also has authored three prize-winning chapbooks.
Her poems appear in various publications, including Best American Poetry, the New York Times, The Paris Review, Ploughshares, The Gettysburg Review, Guernica, Plume, AGNI and Virginia Quarterly Review.
In 2016, her poem “Good Bones” became popular internationally and has been translated into nearly a dozen languages. Public Radio International called it “the official poem of 2016.”
Smith has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ohio Arts Council and the Sustainable Arts Foundation, among others. For more biographical information, visit www.maggiesmithpoet.com.
Additional information about Smith’s campus visit and lecture may be obtained from Michael Kardos, MSU associate professor of English and creative writing program co-director, at 662-325-3644 and MKardos@english.msstate.edu.
Learn more about MSU’s Department of English at www.english.msstate.edu, as well as Facebook and Twitter @MSStateEnglish.
MSU is Mississippi’s leading university, available online at www.msstate.edu.