Cave Canem at The New School Presents: Lillian-Yvonne Bertram, Bianca Spriggs and Marcus Wicker

• Books & Literature

Cave Canem, the premier venue for African-American poetry, presents an ongoing series of readings and discussions with their authors.

• Lillian-Yvonne Bertram is the author of But a Storm is Blowing from Paradise, chosen by Claudia Rankine as the winner of the 2010 Benjamin Saltman Award and published by Red Hen Press. A Cave Canem alumna, her poetry has appeared in Black Warrior Review, Callaloo, Gulf Coast, Harvard Review, Indiana Review, Narrative Magazine, Subtropics, The Winter Anthology and other journals. She was a 2009-2011 Gaius Charles Bolin Fellow at Williams College where she taught creative writing and literature.

• Bianca Spriggs, affrilachian poet and Cave Canem fellow, Spriggs is a multidisciplinary artist who lives and works in Lexington, Kentucky. Currently a doctoral student at the University of Kentucky, she holds degrees from Transylvania University and the University of Wisconsin.  Bianca is the author of two collections of poetry, “Kaffir Lily” (Wind Publications) and “How Swallowtails Become Dragons,” (Accents Publishing), and she currently serves as managing editor for pluck! The Affrilachian Journal of Arts and Culture.

• Marcus Wicker’s first book Maybe the Saddest Thing, was selected by DA Powell for the National Poetry Series and is forthcoming from Harper Collins in 2012. The recipient of a 2011 Ruth Lilly Fellowship, he has also held fellowships from Cave Canem, the Fine Arts Work Center, and Indiana University where he received his MFA. Marcus is assistant professor of English at University of Southern Indiana.

Moderated by Cave Canem.

Sponsored by The School of Writing at The New School and Cave Canem Foundation.