MSUās Shertok shares award-winning poetry debut
Contact: Sarah Nicholas
STARKVILLE, Miss.āMississippi Stateās Department of English hosts poet and Assistant Professor Samyak Shertok for a public reading from his debut collection āNo Rhododendronā Monday [Oct. 20] at 5:30 p.m. in Forum Room 401, Griffis Hall.
Free and open to the public, a Q&A and book signing follow the reading.
A University of Pittsburgh Press publication, Shertokās āNo Rhododendronā was selected by acclaimed poet Kimiko Hahn for the 2024 Association of Writers and Writing Program Donald Hall Prize for Poetry.
āThis debut collection is an absolute marvel,ā Hahn wrote in a review, praising Shertokās writing for fusing grief and survival into art.
āNo Rhododendronā explores the haunting question of how to write about a language that has no script, while bearing witness to personal loss and collective trauma. As one early reviewer described, Shertokās poetry ārises out of ash and walks toward usā¦ shattered but gleaming.ā
āI hope that those attending the reading will leave with an appreciation not only for the power and possibilities of poetry, but for the talent we have at MSU. Dr. Shertok is a brilliant poet and teacher, and weāre so fortunate to have him as part of the English department,ā said Professor Becky Hagenston, who directs the departmentās creative writing program.
Originally from Nepal, Shertok has published poems in The Cincinnati Review, The Gettysburg Review, The Iowa Review, The Kenyon Review, POETRY, Shenandoah, Best New Poets and other leading journals. A finalist for the National Poetry Series and the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize, he has received fellowships from Aspen Words, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation and the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown.
For more information aboutĀ MSU'sĀ College of Arts and SciencesĢż²¹²Ō»åĀ the Department of English, visitĀ Ģż²¹²Ō»å .
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