WSU Visiting Writers Series: Catina Bacote Washington State University’s English department is hosting creative nonfiction writer Catina Bacote for its annual Visiting Writers Series; she’ll be giving her talk “Against Erasure: Reclaiming Our Stories.” Bacote is an assistant professor of English at St. John’s University and a writer specializing in nonfiction, and her stories combine her personal experiences and social history. Her in-progress book research is focused on the lasting impact that the illegal drug trade has had on both her community and her family. Bacote also strives to shed light on the impacts of racism, segregation and economic oppression on communities and families. Bacote has been honored with multiple fellowships and has been published in numerous outlets, including Tin House, Gettysburg Review, TriQuarterly, and the anthology This is the Place: Women Writing about Home.
Southern California Review, and the anthology
This Is The Place: Women Writing About Home (Seal Press, 2017). Bacote’s talk, titled “Against Erasure: Reclaiming Our Stories,” will be March 16 at 6 p.m. via ZOOM/YouTube. The event is free and open to the public.
In 2018,
Ploughshares published her essay, “The Other America,” about police brutality and the failure of community policing in New Haven, Connecticut. Her current book project chronicles the lasting impact of the illegal drug trade on her family and community.
The WSU Visiting Writers Series brings noted poets and writers of fiction and nonfiction to campus for creative readings, class visits, workshops, and collaborative exchanges across intellectual and artistic disciplines. Bacote’s visit is co-sponsored by WSU Pullman English Department, WSU Pullman College of Arts and Sciences, WSU Vancouver Office of Equity and Diversity, WSU Vancouver Library, WSU Vancouver Office of Academic Affairs, and W
WSU’s Visiting Writers Series will host a reading with Chigozie Obioma, a two-time finalist for the Man Booker Prize, through YouTube Live. Obioma is one of two writers in history to have all of their published books become a finalist for the prize.
Obioma will do a reading from his fiction books, “The Fisherman” and “An Orchestra of Minorities” at 7 p.m. on Feb. 10.
“The Fisherman,” Obioma’s first novel, was a finalist for the Man Booker prize when it came out in 2015. Following this success, his second novel “An Orchestra of Minorities” was also a finalist for the Booker prize when it was released in 2019.