Since its creation in 1999, the Kelly Writers Series has brought in poets, playwrights, memoirists and both fiction and nonfiction writers to read their work to the DePauw community. This Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. in the Peeler Auditorium, DePauw will welcome Tarfia Faizullah and David James Poissant for the series, both of whom were awarded prizes for their writing by the Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA).
The GLCA New Writers award allows the winners to travel to 13 colleges in the form of a book tour to give readings of their first works. Faizullah won in the poetry category with Seam, a poetic exploration of the rape of more than 300,000 Bangladeshi women by Pakistani soldiers during the Bangladeshi War of Independence in 1971. Poissant was awarded the fiction prize for his short story collection entitled Heaven of Animals, a story of forgiveness between a gay son and his father. These are both Faizullah and Poissant’s first published books.
Joe Heithaus, the director of the Kelly Writers Series, stresses the importance of bringing in young, upcoming authors to give readings.
“The series' ability to bring in ‘rookies’ sets it apart,” Heithaus said. While the Series usually welcomes one writer at a time to give a reading, Heithaus explained the uniqueness of having two young readers presenting their work side by side-- a statement that David James Poissant agreed with.
“I'm thrilled to be visiting DePauw on another leg of the Great Lakes Colleges Association's New Writers Award. I've gotten to read at a number of schools around the Midwest. While all have been small, private liberal arts schools, each has a personality all its own,” Poissant said. “I look forward to meeting the students of DePauw and to reading for the third time with Tarfia, one of my favorite poets. She gives a heck of a reading. It's an honor and a privilege to read alongside her and to read at DePauw in the Kelly Writers Series.”
Heithaus praised Faizullah in her ability to depict such a difficult subject with such a strong ethical theme in her poetry, an accomplishment that most likely stemmed from her travels to Bangladesh to interview survivors. In an interview with the Paris Review, Faizullah explained her decision to travel to further her writing:
“I realized very quickly there was only so far my imagination could go, and only so much research I could do from the States," Faizullah said. "So I applied for a Fulbright because it seemed—you used the word urgent, and it seemed very urgent for me to go to Bangladesh and record the voices of these women, and spend time in the country in which these atrocities occurred.”
The Kelly Writers Series event is free and open to the public.