Noted Mexican-American and Indigenous poet-author Jennifer Givhan will talk about her literary journey, writing practices, and representation as part of an exclusive two-part online lecture and reading event hosted by the Publications Unit in the Department of English and the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program (WGSS) in the College of Arts and Sciences at Illinois State University.
Known for penning two novels, four poetry collections, and one craft book, Givhan will be the featured speaker at two events hosted by the Publications Unit and WGSS as part of the PUB.UNIT & WGSS Presents event series. The author-poet-editor has been awarded several fellowships and awards such as a 2015 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a PEN/Rosenthal Emerging Voices Fellowship, the Frost Place Latin@ Scholarship, and the 2019 New Ohio Review Poetry Prize (judged by Tyehimba Jess) among other prizes and honors.
The literary event will be held in two parts on February 16 via Zoom. At 10 a.m. Givhan will be in conversation with Dr. Jenna Goldsmith, assistant director of WGSS. Givhan will talk about her role both as a writer and an editor—along with her journey as a writing mentor, a workshop facilitator, and an educator. The interview and Q&A session will be followed by another virtual event at 7 p.m., during which she will read from her creative works. Both events are free and open to all. Please register separately for both events.
Register for the events to enter a raffle for a signed book
We have a limited number of signed copies of Givhan’s books to give away; please answer the question included in the registration to indicate if you would like to be entered into the raffle. Seven winners will be announced during the evening reading.
- Register for the 10 a.m. interview/conversation/Q&A with Jennifer Givhan
- Register for the 7 p.m. Jennifer Givhan Creative Reading
I never thought I’d see the Great Mexicali Novel. Jennifer Givhan teaches us new things about borders, including the shadowy borders of the mind. Intense.
Acclaimed writer Luis Alberto Urrea on Givhan’s fiction
In her writings, Givhan explores issues affecting the lives of women, the ways we inherit and construct or reconstruct our identities, life on the borderlands, and the ways Latina identities are managed, mythologized, and constructed. She practices long and short form fiction and poetry and attracts a wide audience.
Of Givhan’s writing, award-winning poet Ada Limón has said Givhan “is a poet who knows the bones of her world so well that she can rearrange them into anything she wishes.” Best-selling poet and essayist Ross Gay has said Givhan’s writing does “what I hope poems might—they disrupt what I know, or what I thought I knew. And in that way they invent for me a world. A world haunted and brutal, yes.” And of Givhan’s fiction, acclaimed writer Luis Alberto Urrea says, “I never thought I’d see the Great Mexicali Novel. Jennifer Givhan teaches us new things about borders, including the shadowy borders of the mind. Intense.”
Givhan holds an M.F.A. in creative writing—poetry from Warren Wilson College, and an M.A. in literature and creative writing from California State University, Fullerton. She currently serves as editor emeritus of Tinderbox Editions, a nonprofit press located in Red Wing, Minnesota, committed to expanding audiences for poetry and literary prose. Givhan also mentors writers at all stages of their writing lives and processes through her organization “Transformational Coaching for Writers.” She says about her own writing that she is “writing forward, speaking the past, healing the present, and paving a way for my daughter and all the girls, women, femmes, and marginalized folks who need these survival stories.”
The event is sponsored by Harold K. Sage Foundation; the Illinois State University Foundation Fund; the Publications Unit in the Department of English; and the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program.
For additional information, contact Holms Troelstrup, assistant director of the Publications Unit, at jhtroel@IllinoisState.edu or (309) 438-3025. Follow the Publications Unit on Twitter @PubUnit_ISU and on Instagram @PubUnit. Follow the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program on Twitter @ISUWGSS and on Instagram @isuwgss.
