EWU Visiting Writers Series: Jesse Graves

The third reading for Eastern Washington University’s 2017-18 Visiting Writers Series, hosted by EWU’s MFA program and Get Lit!, brings Appalachian born and raised poet Jesse Graves to the Pacific Northwest. Graves’ work is resonant and relevant — he often explores themes of place as it pertains to the rural South, and generational changes that have occured in those communities. Graves has deep ties to the region himself, having grown up in a small Tennessee community first settled by his family’s ancestors in the 1780s. “I am interested in the role the speaker plays in poems, and all the varied experiences one might incorporate by expanding the canvas of possible voices,” Graves writes in an introduction to his recently published poem “Plaintive Lives.” The award-winning poet will read new and past work, including from his 2014 collection Basin Ghosts, the follow-up to his acclaimed 2011 debut, Tennessee Landscapes with Blighted Pine.

Fri, Jan. 19 at 7:30 pm • Free • Auntie’s Bookstore • 402 W. Main • auntiesbooks.com • 838-0206