The Williams Distinguished Visiting Professorship and the Mary Louise White Visiting Writers Series present Joy Harjo, the 23rd U.S. Poet Laureate. A member of the Muscogee Nation, Harjo is the author of ten books of poetry, several plays, children’s books, two memoirs, and seven music albums. Her honors include Yale’s 2023 Bollingen Prize for American Poetry, National Book Critics Circle Ivan Sandrof Lifetime Achievement Award, the Ruth Lily Prize from the Poetry Foundation, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and a Tulsa Artist Fellowship. She is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and Chair of the Native Arts & Cultures Foundation, and is the inaugural Artist-in-Residence for the Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she lives.

“Defining the poet’s role as a ‘journey for truth, for justice,’ Harjo explores the role of the artist in society, the quest for love, the links among the arts, what constitutes family, and what it means to be human.” —Library Journal

After the event, join us for a reception at the Marion Gallery where Harjo's poem and portrait will be part of the exhibit of BA Van Sise's Children of Grass: https://events.fredonia.edu/event/children-of-grass-a-portrait-of-american-poetry