LEWISTON, Idaho – Lewis-Clark State College alum and award-winning poet Michael Wasson will give a virtual reading of some of his work on Wednesday, Feb. 17, as part of the LC State Visiting Writing Series, sponsored by the college’s Humanities Division.
Wasson’s readings will be held at 7 p.m. on the LCSC Humanities YouTube Channel.
Wasson is a 2012 graduate of the college and is a prolific writer of poetry. His third book of poems, “Swallowed Light,” will be published this year. His first book of poems, “This American Ghost” won the Vinyl 45 Chapbook Prize and his second book, “Self-Portrait with Smeared Centuries,” also earned several honors.
Wasson is a 2019 Ruth Lily and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellow and a 2018 Native Arts and Cultures foundation National Artist Fellow in Literature. His works have appeared in American Poets, Kenyon Review, Narrative, Poetry, Best New Poets, and the Norton Anthology.
Wasson is of Nimiipuu decent and grew up in both Lenore and Lapwai. He graduated from Lapwai High School in 2008 and later earned his master’s in Fine Arts at Oregon State University. Upon graduation, he accepted a job teaching foreign languages at 10 schools on the Koshikijima Islands off the coast of southwestern Japan. This spring, he will be teaching literature at Seikei University in Tokyo.
For more information on Wasson’s reading, contact the Humanities Division at [email protected] or call 208-792-2297.