Presented by Inprint and the University of Houston Creative Writing Program

Voigt’s lecture, “Song and Story,” will consider lyric and narrative impulses in poetry, exploring what remains useful, for the contemporary poet, in the distinction. Followed by a reception. Free and open to the public. Click here for details on a reading by Voigt on Tuesday, April 18. 

MacArthur “Genius” Fellow Ellen Bryant Voigt, former Vermont State Poet, is the author of eight collections of poetry, including Claiming Kin; The Forces of Plenty; The Lotus Flowers; Two Trees; Kyrie, a National Book Critics Circle Award finalist and book-length sonnet sequence exploring the lives of people affected by the influenza epidemic of 1918–1919; and Shadow of Heaven, a 2002 National Book Award Finalist. Her most recent collections include Headwaters and Messenger: New and Selected Poems 1976-2006, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. She is also co-editor of Poets Teaching Poets: Self and the World.

A renowned teacher, she is a founder of the Goddard College low-residency MFA program, the first MFA program of its kind. The Atlantic writes, “Voigt’s poetry has reflected her restless search for the means to unite two artistic impulses, to sing and to tell stories.” Booklist says “Voigt’s poems are thoroughly considered creations in which every word, no matter how humble, is worth its weight in gold.”