Navajo poet Sherwin Bitsui, an eminent writer-in-residence at the University of Wyoming this fall, will give a public reading and sign books at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 13, in the Wyoming Union Senate Chambers.
Raised on the Navajo Indian Reservation, Bitsui attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, N.M., and the University of Arizona in Tucson. He is the author of two poetry collections, titled “Flood Song” and “Shapeshift.”
In a June 26 interview in “This Week from Indian Country Today,” Bitsui said, “I grew up in a traditional family, and I always knew that language is powerful, that it can enact things, and change things and transform them. But, when I saw contemporary forms of poetry, in books, anthologies, the way poets (expressed themselves) was very familiar.”
Funding from the Wyoming Excellence in Higher Education Endowment, awarded to both the American Indian Studies Program and the MFA Program in Creative Writing, supports Bitsui’s residency at UW, which is in partnership with both programs.
For more information about Bitsui’s residency at UW, contact American Indian Studies at (307) 766-6521 or the MFA Program at (307) 766-6453.
