Black American Writers Series

The Bert C. Bach Written Word Initiative

Black American Writers Series

Mark your calendars for our upcoming fall installment of the series: Pulitzer Prize winning poet Gregory Pardlo on Wednesday, October 22

 Gregory Pardlo

Join us for a rountable table discussion in the D. P. Culp Student Center's East Tennessee Room (272) from 1:40 to 3 PM.  

From 3:15 to 4:30 PM, Pardlo will give a reading of his work alongside ETSU's own Valencia Robin as she debuts her new book, Lost Cities from Persea Books.

Valencia Robin

Gregory Pardlo is the author of Spectral Evidence, which was a Finalist for the Kingsley Tufts Prize and the National Book Award, and Digest, winner of the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. His other books include Totem, winner of the American Poetry Review/ Honickman Prize, and Air Traffic, a memoir in essays. The book, which weaves together Pardlo’s family history—including his father’s role in the 1981 air traffic controller’s strike—with a larger exploration of Blackness and masculinity in American culture, was named to numerous top-ten lists, including the BBC, Vogue, the New Jersey Monthly, and the New York Times.

His honors include fellowships from the New York Public Library’s Cullman Center, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. He divides his time between New York and the United Arab Emirates where he is Head of Literature and Creative Writing at NYU Abu Dhabi.

Gregory Pardlo was born in Philadelphia and grew up in Willingboro, New Jersey. He is the author of Totem (2007), winner of the APR/Honickman First Book Prize, and Digest (2014), winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. The Pulitzer judges cited Pardlo’s “clear-voiced poems that bring readers the news from 21st Century America, rich with thought, ideas and histories public and private.” 

Pardlo’s poems, reviews, and translations have been widely published and are noted for “language simultaneously urban and highbrow… snapshots of a life that is so specific it becomes universal.”  

Valencia Robin is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice includes poetry and painting. A recipient of a National Endowment of the Arts Fellowship, her debut poetry collection, Ridiculous Light, won Persea Books’ first book prize, was a finalist for the Kate Tufts Discovery Award and was named one of Library Journal’s best poetry books of 2019. Her poems have appeared in The Best American Poetry, The New York Times, and The Virginia Quarterly Review (VQR) as well as other publications. She is also the winner of VQR’s Emily Clark Balch Prize.

A co-founder of GalleryDAAS at the University of Michigan, Robin’s artwork has been shown nationally and supported by the King-Chavez-Parks Future Faculty Fellowship and the Center for the Education of Women’s Margaret Towsley Fellowship. Robin has an MFA in Art & Design from the University of Michigan and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Virginia. A teacher, editor, curator and arts administrator, she does readings, artist talks, class visits and workshops at colleges and universities around the country. Robin currently teaches at East Tennessee State University and lives in Johnson City, Tennessee.
Crystal Wilkinson

Our most recent visitor: Crystal Wilkinson 

We were honored to have two sessions with Crystal Wilkinson in Spring 2025. First, an afternoon coversation between her, Jesse Graves, and Thomas Alan Holmes in the Reece Museum. Then, an evening reading from her collection, Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts, followed by a conversation between her and Fred Sauceman. 

These events are sponsored by the Black American Studies Program, the Bert C. Bach Written Word Initative, and the Center of Excellence for Appalachian Studies and Services. 

Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks

A lyrical culinary journey that explores the hidden legacy of Black Appalachians, through powerful storytelling alongside nearly forty comforting recipes, from the former poet laureate of Kentucky.

Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts

Crystal Wilkinson a recent fellowship recipient of the Academy of American Poets, is the award-winning author of Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts, a culinary memoir, Perfect Black, a collection of poems, and three works of fiction—The Birds of Opulence, Water Street and Blackberries, Blackberries. She is the recipient of an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Poetry, an O. Henry Prize, a USA Artists Fellowship, and an Ernest J. Gaines Prize for Literary Excellence. Named Kentucky’s Poet Laureate from 2021 to 2023, she has received recognition from the Yaddo Foundation, Hedgebrook, The Vermont Studio Center for the Arts, The Hermitage Foundation and others. Her short stories, poems and essays have appeared in numerous journals and anthologies including most recently in The Atlantic, The Kenyon Review, STORY, Agni Literary Journal, Emergence, Oxford American and Southern Cultures. She currently teaches at the University of Kentucky where she is Bush-Holbrook Professor in Creative Writing.

Perfect Black The Birds Of Opulence
Blackberries, Blackberries Water Street

Crystal Wilkinson The Black American Writers Series is a partnership between Black American Studies, The Bert C. Bach Written Word Initiative, and the Department of Literature & Language. The interdisciplinary series is set in the heart of Black American Studies, a major interdisciplinary program in the College of Arts & Sciences. This series brings noteworthy essayists, poets, writers, journalists, historians, and others to the campus of East Tennessee State University to highlight and spotlight the contributions of Black American Writers.

  • Natasha Trethewey reads from her work.

  • Major Jackson discusses writing craft with students.

  • Sherée Renee Thomas presenting on speculative fiction for students at the Reece Museum.

  • Major Jackson in a roundtable discussion with Dr. Jesse Graves and Valencia Robin.

  • Sherée Renee Thomas' presentation on speculative fiction.

  • Dr. Daryl Carter introduces Natasha Trethewey before her evening reading.

  • Dr. Jesse Graves, Natasha Trethewey, Dr. Daryl Carter, and Dr. Amy Wright

  • Dr. Jesse Graves and Dr. Amy Wright in a roundtable discussion with Natasha Trethewey.

Nikki Giovanni

The Black American Studies program and Art & Design’s Slocumb Galleries were proud to present internationally recognized poet Nikki Giovanni to speak at East Tennessee State University on September 20, 2022.


Nikki Giovanni is a poet, professor, author, and internationally recognized for her distinguished contributions to the field. Her works, such as Black Feeling, Black Talk, Bicycles: Love Poems, and Those Who Ride the Night Winds, have made her one of America’s most important voices on the Black experience since the late 1960s. She is also a professor at Virginia Tech University, where she was a powerful voice in the aftermath of the mass shooting there in 2007, representing a campus devastated by the loss of so many lives. Her marks went viral, thus reflecting this simple fact: it is the humanities which explains our world, bringing us together, and supplies the healing balm when tragedy strikes.

Sherée Renee Thomas Major Jackson
Nikki Giovani Tyree Day