Vasquez Memorial Poetry Series Brings Jericho Brown to CF Feb. 5-6

Brown will read from his collection at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 5, in the Dassance Fine Arts Auditorium, and at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 6, in the Humanities and Social Sciences Building 8, Room 110, at the CF Ocala Campus, 3001 S.W. College Road. Tickets are not required and entry is free at both readings.

Brown is the author of three collections of poetry: “The Tradition” (2019), a finalist for the 2019 National Book Award; “The New Testament” (Copper Canyon, 2014), winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and named one of the best collections of the year by Library Journal, Coldfront, and the Academy of American Poets; and “Please” (New Issues, 2008), which won the 2009 American Book Award, according to the author.

Brown’s daring new book, “The Tradition” details the normalization of evil and history at the intersection of the past and the personal. Poems of fatherhood, legacy, blackness, queerness, worship, and trauma are propelled into stunning clarity by Brown’s mastery. “The Tradition” is a cutting and necessary collection, relentless in its quest for survival while reveling in a celebration of contradiction.

Brown grew up in Louisiana and worked as a speechwriter for the mayor of New Orleans before earning his doctorate in Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Houston. He also holds a Masters in Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of New Orleans. He is an associate professor and the director of the Creative Writing Program at Emory University in Atlanta.

The Debra Vazquez Memorial Poetry Series honors CF English and creative writing professor Debra Vazquez, who died as a result of domestic violence in 2004.

For more information, contact Sandra Cooper at 352-854-2322, ext. 1361, or coopersa@cf.edu.