Former Utah poet laureate Paisley Rekdal to present in Eccles A.P.E.X. series2 min read

Cedar City, UT — Former Utah poet laureate, author, and the University of Utah distinguished professor Paisley Rekdal will visit Southern Utah University on Oct. 17 to deliver a lecture titled “West: A Translation” as the Grace A. Tanner Center Visiting Writer. Her lecture will be held in the Gilbert Great Hall of the Hunter Alumni Center at 11:30 a.m.

Named after her 2018 book of essays and poems, “West: A Translation,” Rekdal’s lecture will discuss the connection between the completion of the transcontinental railroad and the Chinese Exclusion Act. Rekdal’s translation of an anonymous poem left by a Chinese detainee explores the transcontinental railroad’s history as well as how the West both unites and divides the
country.

“West: A Translation” was placed on the National Book Award Longlist for 2023 and received the 2024 Kingsley Tufts Prize. It is also paired with westtrain.org, an interactive dive into the transcontinental railroad featuring video poems.

“We are honored to be hosting a former poet laureate for this lecture,” said Grace A. Tanner Center Director Danielle Dubrasky. “‘West: A Translation’ will be a fantastic presentation about understanding the relationship between place and power, which ties in with our Human Values theme this year.”

Rekdal has authored four nonfiction books as well as penned seven collections of poetry, including “Animal Eye,” winner of the UNT Rilke Prize, and “Nightingale,” winner of the 2020 Washington State Book Award for Poetry. Her work has received various honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Amy Lowell Poetry Traveling Fellowship, a Fulbright Fellowship, and Pushcart Prizes, among others.

Rekdal currently teaches in the University of Utah’s creative writing program and directs the American West Center. From 2017-2022, she served as Utah’s poet laureate, during which she created community projects like Mapping Literary Utah and Mapping Salt Lake City. She now serves as the poetry editor for “High Country News” and as co-chair of PEN America’s Utah Chapter.

For those unable to attend Rekdal’s lecture, she will be leading a workshop titled “Real Locations, Imagined Selves” on Wednesday, Oct. 16, at the Frontier Homestead State Park Museum from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Rekdal will also take part in Humanities in the Wild: “Following the Creative Flow,” a walking and writing workshop along Coal Creek Trail with Rob Carney, held on Thursday, Oct. 17, from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Participants should meet in the West Canyon Park unless directed otherwise via Southern Utah Book Festival’s Instagram. In case of weather, the workshop will be held at Artisans Art Gallery.

Both of these events are sponsored by the Grace A. Tanner Center for Human Values, which seeks to promote access to scholarly and scientific learning in all areas of human values that embrace moral, artistic, intellectual, and spiritual concepts.

More information about these events can be found on the website of either Eccles APEX or Southern Utah Book Festival.

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