Southern Lit Alliance will host Pulitzer Prize finalist Adrian Matjeka on Wednesday, Feb. 10, at the Arts Building, located on the corner of 11th and King Streets.
The event schedule consists of a cocktail reception with Mr. Matejka for VIP ticket-holders at 5 p.m and a reading at 6 p.m. A book signing will immediately follow. Mr. Matejka will also visit Girls Preparatory School for a discussion and Q&A session with local high school students.
General admission tickets begin at $15. There is a student ticket available for $5. VIP tickets, which include the reception, reserved seating, and fast track super powers at the book signing are $25. South Bound season subscriptions are also available for those who wish to attend multiple lectures.
Mr. Matejka’s first collection of poems,The Devil’s Garden, won the 2002 New York / New England Award from Alice James Books. His second collection, Mixology, was a winner of the 2008 National Poetry Series and was published by Penguin Books in 2009. Mixology was a finalist for a NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literature – Poetry. His most recent book, The Big Smoke, was awarded the 2014 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. The Big Smoke was also a finalist for the 2013 National Book Award, the 2014 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, and the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry.
Mr. Matejka is a winner of the Julia Peterkin Award, the Eugene and Marilyn Glick Indiana Authors Award, two grants from the Illinois Arts Council, and fellowships from Cave Canem, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Lannan Foundation. His work has appeared in American Poetry Review, The Best American Poetry 2010, Gulf Coast, Ploughshares, Poetry, and Prairie Schooner among other journals and anthologies.
He is the Lilly Professor/Poet-in-Residence at Indiana University in Bloomington and is currently working on a new collection of poems and a graphic novel.
Individual tickets and season subscriptions are available now. To purchase tickets or view the lineup and schedule, please visit So Lit’s newly designed website: www.SouthernLitAlliance.org, or call 267-1218.