T206.
Fatherhood & Grief: Writers Reflect on the Most Difficult Story
Thursday, March 24, 2022
1:45 pm to 3:00 pm
Three poets and one novelist reflect on the traumas of child loss, reproductive loss, and geographical/genocidal loss through the lens of fatherhood. These writers will explore what it means to name the unsayable nature of grief in their writing as both a craft and personal issue. Deconstructing societal taboos around emotion and masculinity, these writers will explore the particular nature of fatherly grief, what it means to “lose all father now” as the poet Ben Jonson wrote centuries ago.
Participants
Aaron Brown is the author of Acacia Road, winner of the 2016 Gerald Cable Book Award. He has published work in Image, World Literature Today, Tupelo Quarterly, Waxwing, and Transition, among others. Brown grew up in Chad and is an English professor at LeTourneau University.
Shann Ray is the author of American Masculine: Stories; the nonfiction book, Forgiveness and Power in the Age of Atrocity; Balefire: Poems; and the novel, American Copper. His work has been honored with an American Book Award and an NEA Literature Fellowship. He teaches leadership and forgiveness studies at Gonzaga University.
Saddiq Dzukogi’s poetry collection Your Crib, My Qibla was named one of twenty-nine best poetry collections by Oprah Daily. He is the recipient of fellowships and grants from Nebraska Arts Council, Pen America, Obsidian Foundation, and University of Nebraska–Lincoln.
Catherine Ricketts
