University of Iowa News Release

April 14, 2005

American Book Award-Winning Poet Carolyne Wright Reads On WSUI April 25

Poet Carolyne Wright will read from her American Book Award-winning collection, "Seasons of Mangoes and Brainfire," at 8 p.m. Monday, April 25, on the "Live from Prairie Lights" series on University of Iowa radio station WSUI, AM 910. Listen on the Internet at wsui.uiowa.edu.

The reading, hosted by Julie Englander, will be a free event in the Prairie Lights bookstore at 15 S. Dubuque St. in downtown Iowa City.

In addition to the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation, the book won the Blue Lynx Prize and the Oklahoma Book Award in Poetry.

Yusef Komunyakaa wrote, "'Seasons Of Mangoes And Brainfire' explodes into a multiple reflection on territories, cultures, flesh and mind. This surefooted narrator seems compelled to know everything our worlds are made of, every stitch and seam of the song. Imagistic perception, futuristic at times, and a keen clarity fulfill the mission of these poems: that is, to bring us an exacting passion, and insight into ourselves."

Wright studied at Seattle University and New York University, and has master's and doctoral degrees in English and creative writing from Syracuse University. Among her books and chapbooks of poetry are "Premonitions of an Uneasy Guest" and "From a White Woman's Journal." She has also written a collection of essays, "A Choice of Fidelities: Lectures and Readings from a Writer's Life" and has translated several volumes of poetry from Spanish and Bengali.

Wright has received awards for her writing from the Poetry Society of America and the New York State Council on the Arts, and she has been a Writing Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. She has held visiting creative writing posts at institutions including Radcliffe College, Emory University, the University of Wyoming, Sweet Briar College, Ashland University, the University of Miami, Oklahoma State University the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond and the College of Wooster.

For UI arts information and calendar updates, visit http://www.uiowa.edu/artsiowa. To receive UI arts news by e-mail, ur-acr@uiowa.edu.

STORY SOURCE: University of Iowa Arts Center Relations, 300 Plaza Centre One, Suite 351, Iowa City, IA 52242-2500.

MEDIA CONTACT: Winston Barclay, 319-384-0073, winston-barclay@uiowa.edu