Lucinda Roy, Alumni Distinguished Professor in Creative Writing at Virginia Tech, will give a multimedia reading from Fabric, her new collection of poems, April 5 at 7 p.m. in the Cube in the Moss Arts Center.

The reading will feature artwork from the book, including the cover artwork, which Roy herself painted. The book features a sequence of poems about African art in honor of the poet’s late father, who was a Jamaican Maroon carver, a tradition handed down from father to son since the 1700s.

Roy said she intends the reading to be a celebration of diversity. 

Fabric
The cover of Lucinda Roy’s latest poetry collection bears a painting inspired by her father, a carver who carried on a centuries-old tradition.

“I especially want to highlight the great work being done by Virginia Tech on inclusion and diversity,” she said.

A novelist, poet, and nonfiction writer, Roy has authored six books, including the new poetry collection, which was published in February by Aquarius Press/Willow Books. Among her literary awards are the Eighth Mountain Poetry Prize, the Commonwealth of Virginia’s statewide Outstanding Faculty Award, and a Discover Great New Writers selection from Barnes and Noble. In 2000, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Richmond.

In her fiction and poetry, Roy draws upon her experience teaching on three different continents and explores the challenges and rewards of communicating across different cultures.

In 2010, she was invited by the humanitarian organization CARE to be part of a small delegation of women leaders sent to Sierra Leone, where she had served previously as a volunteer-teacher, to study infant and maternal health. That experience is reflected in Fabric.

Roy is currently working on a novel and a series of oil paintings depicting the Middle Passage, the forced transport of millions of Africans to the New World as part of the Atlantic slave trade.

The Moss Arts Center is located at 190 Alumni Mall in Blacksburg. An author signing will follow the reading.