Detroit Mercy to host two award-winning poets

The public, students, staff and faculty are invited to hear two nationally award-winning poets read from their work at University of Detroit Mercy. 

Stacy Gnall will read from her new book Dogged at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 6 in the Bargman Room of the McNichols Campus Library. Dogged won the 2021 Juniper Prize for Poetry.  

Gnall is poet-in-residence at Detroit Mercy and is teaching creative writing and poetry this academic year. This event is sponsored by the Department of English and the College of Liberal Arts & Education at Detroit Mercy. Gnall is also the author of Heart First into the Forest. 

On Thursday, Oct. 27, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Tyehimba Jess will read at 7 p.m. in an event co-sponsored by the Department of English, the College of Liberal Arts & Education, the African American Studies Program and the Black Abolitionist Archive. He will read on Detroit Mercy’s McNichols campus in the Chemistry Building, Room 114. 

Jess, a Detroit native, won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for poetry for his book Olio. In 2004, his book Leadbelly was a winner of the National Poetry Series. 

“Stacy and Tyehimba are important voices in contemporary poetry, and Detroit Mercy is thrilled to be able to present them to the community,” said Mary-Catherine Harrison, associate professor and chair of the Department of English. 

Both events are free and open to the public. For more information, visit https://udmercy.edu/english.