The Jack Ridl Visiting Writers Series of Hope College will feature poet Mark Yakich and fictionist Tony D'Souza Tuesday, March 11, at 7 p.m. at the Knickerbocker Theatre.
The Jack Ridl Visiting Writers Series of Hope College will feature poet Mark Yakich and fictionist Tony D'Souza Tuesday, March 11, at 7 p.m. at the Knickerbocker Theatre.
In addition, the two writers will be featured during a question-and-answer discussion earlier in the day, from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the DeWitt Center Herrick Room.
The public is invited to both event. Admission is free.
Mark Yakich's debut book of poems, "Unrelated Individuals Forming a Group Waiting to Cross," was a winner of the 2003 National Poetry Series, and, according to poet James Galvin, is full of "journeys, crossings, and departures - all evocative of the loneliness, alienation, and desire for identity with another." Yakich's award-winning follow-up book, "The Making of Collateral Beauty," is called both companion to and descendant of his first book because each new poem shares a title with a poem from the first book. Yakich has worked in the European Parliament and has degrees in political science, West European studies, and poetry.
Tony D'Souza's critically acclaimed debut novel "Whiteman" won both the Sue Kaufman Prize from the AmericanAcademy of Arts and Letters and the 2007 Great Lakes College Association New Writers Award for Fiction. "Whiteman" episodically tells the story of a young American relief worker living in a Muslim Ivory Coast village. "Salon" reviewer Laura Miller has observed that "each little tale nestled in [the] novel has an intoxicating, fireside charm. Some of the tales are sad, or spooky or bawdy, but all of them seamlessly combine the ancient allure of folklore with a modern, Western literary elegance." D'Souza spent three years in the Peace Corps in West Africa working as a rural AIDS educator.
The Hope College Jazz Ensemble will precede the reading at the Knickerbocker with a 6:30 p.m. performance.
Additional information may be obtained online by visiting www.hope.edu/vws.
The DeWitt Center is located at 141 E. 12th St., facing Columbia Avenue at 12th Street. The Knickerbocker Theatre is located in downtown Holland at 86 E. Eighth St.