Whitworth will be hosting award-winning poet, author and professor Julia Kasdorf as its 2014 Simpson-Duvall Lecturer. Kasdorf will read from her book “Poetry in America“ and other works Tuesday, Feb. 25, at 7 p.m. in the Multipurpose Room in the Hixson Union Building.
“Few poets of Kasdorf’s stature engage so deeply with the intersections of Christian faith, gender and embodiment,” Whitworth Associate Professor of English Charles Andrews said in a press release. “She rose to prominence through her writings about her conservative Mennonite upbringing with collections like Sleeping Preacher, and I think that the Whitworth community may be especially interested in her rich, eloquent, and witty explorations of faith and art in America today.”
Kasdorf was born in 1962 in a Mennonite community, but her parents moved the family away when she was still a baby. As a young girl, Kasdorf returned to the family’s ancestral Mennonite home during the summers to spend time with her grandparents. Feeling suspended between the modern world and the Mennonite tradition, Kasdorf began journaling her experiences during childhood and points to this as the start of her life as a writer. Much of her poetry features imagery she remembers from her grandparents’ farm, according to a press release.
Kasdorf is currently a professor of creative writing and women’s studies at The Pennsylvania State University and is the author of three poetry collections.
According to a press release the Simpson-Duvall Lectureship honors two of Whitworth’s most distinguished professors: Clarence Simpson, professor of English from 1953-80, and R. Fenton Duvall, professor of history from 1949-81. The annual lectureship is held in appreciation for these two men’s years of commitment and contributions to Whitworth; it continues, in their spirit, to enrich the university community. The lecture is held once each calendar year, and topics alternate between Simpson’s and Duvall’s disciplines, English and history.
This event is free and open to the public. For more information, call (509) 777-3270.
