CF Communications Department to Host Nationally Renowned Poet Brian Turner

The College of Central Florida Communications Department will host a reading with award-winning poet and memoirist Brian Turner. A book signing and Q&A session will follow the reading, which begins at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 18, in Building 8 at the Ocala Campus, 3001 S.W. College Road.

Turner is the author of five collections of poetry, most recently “The Wild Delight of Wild Things” (2023), “The Goodbye World Poem” (2023), and “The Dead Peasant’s Handbook” (2023), all forthcoming with Alice James Books. The trilogy traverses the landscape of loss, sitting quietly in the grief of afterwards before allowing oneself to gravitate again toward delight and wonder.

His other collections include “Here, Bullet” (2005), winner of the 2005 Beatrice Hawley Award, the New York Times “Editor’s Choice” selection, the 2006 PEN Center USA “Best in the West” award, and the 2007 Poets Prize; and “Phantom Noise” (2010). He is also the author of the memoir “My Life as a Foreign Country,” which made Powell’s Best Nonfiction of 2014 list.

His poems and essays have been published in The New York Times, The Guardian, National Geographic and Harper’s, among other journals. He was featured in the documentary film “Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience,” which was nominated for an Academy Award.

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. Funds for this event are provided by the Debra A. Vazquez Endowed Chair in Poetry.

For additional information, contact CF Senior Professor Sandra Cooper, 352-873-5800, ext. 1361. To learn more about CF, visit www.CF.edu.