A Conversation with Joy Harjo

Join U.P. Poet Laureate M. Bartley Siegel on Monday, March 28, at 7:30-8:30pm(EST), for a conversation with United States Poet Laureate, Joy Harjo. She will be reading a selection of poems from her book, An American Sunrise. This virtual event is sponsored by the Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts at Michigan Technological University—it is free and open to the public.

Joy Harjo is an internationally renowned performer and writer of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. She is serving her second term as the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States. The author of nine books of poetry, including the highly acclaimed An American Sunrise, several plays and children’s books, and two memoirs, Crazy Brave and Poet Warrior, her many honors include the Ruth Lily Prize for Lifetime Achievement from the Poetry Foundation, the Academy of American Poets Wallace Stevens Award, two NEA fellowships, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. As a musician and performer, Harjo has produced seven award-winning music albums including her newest, I Pray for My Enemies. She is Exec­u­tive Edi­tor of the anthol­o­gy When the Light of the World was Sub­dued, Our Songs Came Through — A Nor­ton Anthol­o­gy of Native Nations Poet­ry and the editor of Living Nations, Living Words: An Anthology of First Peoples Poetry, the companion anthology to her signature Poet Laureate project. She is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets, Board of Directors Chair of the Native Arts & Cultures Foundation, and is the first Artist-in-Residence for Tulsa’s Bob Dylan Center. She lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

If you have a particular poem from An American Sunrise that you’d like to hear Joy read, or if you have a specific question you’d like to ask her during the conversation, you can submit your query for consideration here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf7ovk4XbMJOa9RBc67JnQbo7eofb_5oV3jgC18UgHPdSisZA/viewform