The University of Connecticut's Creative Writing Program is pleased to announce that Tara Betts will be reading her poetry at 6:30 pm on Wednesday, November 1, 2017 at the Barnes & Noble Bookstore in Storrs Center.
Tara Betts is the author of Break the Habit (2016) and Arc & Hue (2009). She has additionally self-published small runs of several chapbooks, including “Circling Unexpectedly” (2013), “Switch” (2003), and “Can I Hang?” (1999). Her most recent chapbook, 7 x 7: kwansabas, was published by Backbone Press in 2015. Betts is also one of the co-editors of The Beiging of America: Personal Narratives About Being Mixed Race in the 21st Century (2017).
Betts’ work has appeared in Poetry, American Poetry Review, Essence Magazine, NYLON, and numerous anthologies. She was commissioned by the Peggy Choy Dance Company to write a series of poems and monologues for “THE GREATEST!: An Homage to Muhammad Ali” in 2011 and 2013. These writings were published on Winged City Press in April 2013 and were mentioned in the New York Times. Betts was named as one of Essence’s “40 Favorite Poets” in 2010. After winning the 1999 Guild Complex’s Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Award, she represented Chicago twice at the National Poetry Slam in 1999 and 2000.
Betts graduated from Cave Canem and has had residencies from the Ragdale Foundation and Centrum and Caldera, and an Illinois Arts Council Artist fellowship. She holds a PhD in English from Binghamton University as well as an MFA in Creative Writing from New England College. She currently teaches at the University of Illinois, Chicago.
This event is a benefit for the Covenant Soup Kitchen in Willimantic, Connecticut. Audience members are invited to make a monetary donation after the reading. Those who are unable to attend but still wish to contribute are welcome to leave a cash or check donation in the mailbox of Professor Sean Forbes in room 208 of the Austin Building.
The Creative Writing Program aims to introduce and engage both undergraduate and graduate students in various writing courses including fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, drama, screenwriting, and more. These courses are offered to students of all majors in order to engage and include all that are interested in joining this growing creative writing community at the University of Connecticut.
The reading is free and open to the public. The UConn Bookstore is located at One Royce Circle, 101 Storrs Center, and can be contacted at 860-486-8525. For more information, visit the Creative Writing Program’s website at www.creativewriting.uconn.edu.
For more information, contact: Lauren Cenci at 8608748794