The Johnson County Public Library is thrilled to welcome Poets Laureate – Tracy K. Smith (U.S.) and Adrian Matejka (IN) as our next authors in the 2018 Authors at JCPL series. Join us at our Franklin Branch on September 7, 2018.

Tracy K. Smith was born in Massachusetts and raised in northern California. She earned a BA from Harvard University and an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University. Smith is the author of three books of poetry: The Body’s Question (2003), which won the Cave Canem prize for the best first book by an African-American poet; Duende (2007), winner of the James Laughlin Award and the Essense Literary Award; Life on Mars (2011), winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry; and Wade in the Water (2018). In 2014 she was awarded the Academy of American Poets fellowship. She has also written a memoir, Ordinary Light (2015), which was a finalist for the National Book Award in nonfiction. In June 2017, Smith was named U.S. poet laureate. She teaches creative writing at Princeton University.

Adrian Matejka was born in Nuremberg, Germany and grew up in California and Indiana. He earned his BA from Indiana University and an MFA from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. His first collection of poems, The Devil’s Garden (2003), won the 2002 New York / New England Award. His second collection, Mixology (2009), was a winner of the National Poetry Series. Mixology was a finalist for a NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literature. The Big Smoke (2013), which focuses on the life of the boxer Jack Johnson, was awarded the 2014 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was a finalist for the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize. His most recent book is Map to the Stars (2017). Matejka is the recipient of fellowships the Guggenheim Foundation and the Lannan Foundation. He teaches creative writing at Indiana University in Bloomington. Matejka was our very first Authors at JCPL visiting author in 2017 and we are thrilled to welcome him back as the Indiana Poet Laureate.

The first 20 JCPL cardholders to reserve a seat and attend this event will receive a signed copy of one of the poets’ books.

Copies of the poets’ books will be available for purchase from Wild Geese Bookshop at the event.