F206.
Into the Void: Faith & Doubt in Contemporary Poetry
Friday, March 25, 2022
1:45 pm to 3:00 pm
“If God is dead,” writes Richard Rodriguez, “I will cry into the void.” In an age of distrust of institutions—church, state, and everything in between—what draws poets to questions of the divine? In a time of dwindling participation in organized religion, what sustenance might a poetry of faith and doubt offer readers and writers? In this panel, four poets discuss their approaches to traditions of belief and critique and how these traditions may be reinvented to address our contemporary crises.
Participants
Dave Lucas is the author of Weather, which received the Ohioana Book Award for Poetry. In 2018, he was appointed the second poet laureate of the state of Ohio. He teaches at Case Western Reserve University.
Leila Chatti is the author of Deluge), Tunsiya/Amrikiya, and Ebb. She is the Mendota Lecturer in Poetry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Philip Metres is the author and translator of a number of books, including Shrapnel Maps, The Sound of Listening, Sand Opera, Pictures at an Exhibition, and To See the Earth. His work has garnered Guggenheim and Lannan fellowships, two NEAs, three Arab American book awards, and the Hunt Prize.
Natasha Oladokun is a poet and essayist. Her work has appeared in the American Poetry Review, Harvard Review Online, Kenyon Review Online, and Catapult. She holds fellowships from Cave Canem and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and is a 2021 Barbara Smith Writer in Residence.
