Acclaimed poet Ed Madden to read from his work April 8 at Delta Symposium XVI

March 17, 2010 -- Acclaimed poet Ed Madden will give a reading of his poems on Thursday, April 8 at 7:30 p.m. at ASU’s Cooper Alumni Center, 2600 Alumni Boulevard, Jonesboro. Madden will highlight works from his new collection of poetry, “Signals,” at the ASU Cooper Alumni Center’s lower lobby. Madden will sign copies of his books at a reception held in his honor following the reading. Presented by ASU’s English and Philosophy Department, the reading is free and open to the public.

Ed Madden is the author of “Signals,” selected by Afaa Michael Weaver as winner of the 2007 South Carolina Poetry Book Prize. His poems have appeared in the Los Angeles Review, Poetry Ireland, Sojourners, and other journals, as well as  “The Seagull Reader: Poems,” from W.W. Norton, “The Southern Poetry Anthology,” from Texas A&M University Press, and “The Book of Irish American Poetry from the Eighteenth Century to the Present,” published by the University of Notre Dame Press. He was included in “Best New Poets 2007.” Madden grew up on a rice and soybean farm in northeast Arkansas.

Madden is currently an associate professor of English and associate director of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of South Carolina, as well as a writer-in-residence for Riverbanks Botanical Gardens and an artist in residence for the Palmetto Center for the Arts. He earned his BA in English from Harding University in Arkansas, a BS in biblical studies from the Institute for Christian Studies in Austin, Texas, and his MA and PhD in English from the University of Texas at Austin. He is also the author of “Tiresian Poetics,” a study of modernist poetry, and editor of “Irish Studies: Geographies and Genders.”

Madden’s presentation is a highlight of this year’s Delta Symposium, April 7-10.  Other featured events include presentations by the scholar Dr. Trudier Harris and the photographer Roland Freeman, performances by noted bluesman Bobby Rush, and the Bluegrass Morning/Blues Bash Afternoon music festival on Saturday, April 10.

For more information, contact Dr. Gregory Hansen (ghansen@astate.edu), Department of English and Philosophy, Symposium Committee, at (870) 972-3043. Visit the symposium’s website at www.clt.astate.edu/blues.

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