Evie Shockley, a professor of English at Rutgers University, is a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar at Virginia Tech, where she will give several presentations open to the Virginia Tech community as well as the public on October 8 and 9.

Shockley has published three books of poetry: semiautomatic (Wesleyan University Press, 2017), which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in poetry and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in poetry; the new black (Wesleyan University Press, 2011), winner of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in Poetry; and a half-red sea (Carolina Wren Press, 2006).

Shockley has also authored a critical monograph, Renegade Poetics: Black Aesthetics and Formal Innovation in African American Poetry (University of Iowa Press, 2011). At Rutgers, she specializes in 20th-century African American literature, contemporary poetry and poetics, and Black studies.

In 2019, she was named winner of the Lannan Literary Award in Poetry. Among her other honors are the Stephen Henderson Award, the Holmes National Poetry Prize, and fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and the American Council of Learned Societies. She holds a JD from the University of Michigan Law School and a PhD in English from Duke University.

Thursday, October 8, 2020
Rutgers English Diversity Institute (REDI), Pipeline Programs, and Graduate Studies: A Discussion and Q&A with Dr. Evie Shockley (1:30 to 2:30 p.m. ET)
Join Shaila Mehra, assistant dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, for a discussion and Q&A with Evie Shockley.
Free on Zoom

Thursday, October 8, 2020
Poetry and Justice: A Discussion and Q&A with Dr. Evie Shockley (3:30 to 4:30 p.m. ET)
Join Carmen Giménez Smith, professor of English, Shaina Jones, MFA candidate in creative writing, and Taylor Portela, MFA candidate in creative writing, for a discussion and Q&A with Evie Shockley.
Free on Zoom

Friday, October 9, 2020
A Poetry Reading and Q&A by Dr. Evie Shockley, Virginia Tech’s 2020–2021 Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar (3:30 to 4:30 p.m. ET)
Join Evan Lavender-Smith, Phi Beta Kappa president and assistant professor of creative writing in the Virginia Tech Department of English, for a poetry reading and Q&A with Evie Shockley.
Free; registration required