The Spring 2019 Southern Indiana Reading Series kicks off with readings and discussions with two writers, Hanif Abdurraqib and Elena Passarello, on Tuesday, February 19. The readings will begin at 4:30 p.m. at the University of Southern Indiana Performance Center, which will be followed by a reception. Books will be available for purchase and for signing. This event is free and open to the public.
Hanif Abdurraqib is a poet, essayist and cultural critic from Columbus, Ohio. He is the author of The Crown Ain't Worth Much, nominated for a Hurston-Wright Legacy Award and They Can't Kill Us Until They Kill Us, named a best book of 2017 by NPR, Pitchfork, Oprah Magazine, The Chicago Tribune, Slate, Esquire, GQ and Publisher's Weekly, among others. Abdurraqib has multiple forthcoming books including a book on A Tribe Called Quest titled Go Ahead In The Rain, the new collection of poems A Fortune For Your Disaster and a history of Black performance in the United States titled They Don't Dance No Mo'.
Elena Passarello is an actor, a writer and the recipient of a 2015 Whiting Award. Her second essay collection with Sarabande Books, Animals Strike Curious Poses, was named a Notable Book of 2017 by The New York Times Book Review, and her first, Let Me Clear My Throat, won the gold medal for nonfiction at the 2013 Independent Publisher Awards. Her essays on performance, pop culture, and the natural world have been published in Oxford American, Slate, Creative Nonfiction and The Iowa Review, among others.
The Southern Indiana Reading Series is made possible by the Indiana Arts Commission, the Vanderburgh Community Foundation Alliance and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
For more information visit USI.edu/reading-series or contact Casey Pycior, assistant professor of English, at 812-228-5037 or cpycior@usi.edu.
