National Book Award winner Nathaniel Mackey to read at Texas State

Nathaniel Mackey (Photo by Lorenzo Ciniglio, National Book Foundation)

The free event is open to the public and will take place at 3:30 p.m. at the Southwestern Writer’s Collection on the 7^th floor of the Alkek Library on campus.

Mackey is an internationally recognized poet, critic, fiction writer and editor whose eight books of poetry include Four for Trane, Septet for the End of Time, Outlantish, and Song of the Andoumboulou.

Mackey’s 1985 book, Eroding Witness, was selected for publication in the National Poetry Series. His most recent volume, Splay Anthem, won the 2006 National Book Award in poetry.

A refreshing mix of rants, rhythms and whispers, Splay Anthem extends two ongoing poems Mackey has been writing for more than twenty years, Song of the Andoumboulou and “Mu.”

His blend of spirituality and rebirth in the book resonates with a variety of interpretation and meaning that transcends society, music, legend and geography, offering a perspective of unity.

Mackey is also author of an ongoing prose composition and two volumes of literary criticism, Paracritical Hings (2005) and Discrepant Engagement: Dissonance, Cross-Culturality, and Experimental Writing (1993). He is editor of the literary magazine Hambone, chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and is a professor of literature at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

The event is presented by the Therese Kayser Lindsey chair of literature in conjunction with the Department of English.