Virtual Calvin January Series: Marilyn Nelson, Abram Van Engen, Joanne Diaz

A Live Recording of the Podcast, "Poetry For All" with Marilyn Nelson

Marilyn Nelson is a three-time finalist for the National Book Award and one of America’s most celebrated poets. She has written or translated 20 poetry books for adults and children and five chapbooks. Her poems embrace numerous themes about growing up in an African American military family, love, racism, motherhood, marriage, and more.

Her verse memoir, How I Discovered Poetry, was named one of NPR’s Best Books of 2014, and her numerous works have received a combined 20 awards and nominations. Nelson’s many other honors include two NEA creative writing fellowships, the Poetry Foundation’s Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize, the Connecticut Arts Award, and ACLS Contemplative Practices Fellowship, the Department of the Army’s Commander’s Award for Public Service, a Fulbright Teaching Fellowship, a fellowship from the J.S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Wallace Stevens Award from The Academy of American Poets, and the Frost Medal.

She is also a professor emerita of English at the University of Connecticut; the former, founder, director, and host of Soul Mountain Retreat; the State of Connecticut’s Poet Laureate from 2001–2006.

Joanne Diaz and Abram Van Engen are podcast co-hosts Poetry for All, where they read a poem, discuss it, see what makes it tick, learn how it works, grow from it, and then read it again. During the January Series, they’ll do a live recording of their show with guest Marilyn Nelson.

Joanne Diaz is an English professor at Illinois Wesleyan University and the author of two poetry collections, The Lessons and My Favorite Tyrants.

She is the recipient of fellowships from the Illinois Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ragdale Foundation, and the Virginia Center for Creative Arts. Her recent poems have been published in American Poetry Review, Colorado Review, New England Review, Poetry, River Styx, and Waxwing.

Abram Van Engen is a humanities professor and chair of the English Department at Washington University in St. Louis. He is also the executive director of The Carver Project, a non-profit organization of Christian faculty designed to serve and connect university, church, and society.

His writings on religion and literature have been supported by multiple fellowships and awards, including two book prizes for City on a Hill: A History of American Exceptionalism. His next book, Word Made Fresh: An Invitation to Poetry for the Church, will be available in April 2024.

The January Series is a FREE 15-day award-winning lecture series that takes place each year at Calvin University.  The series aims to cultivate deep thought and conversations about important issues of the day, to inspire cultural renewal and make us better global citizens in God's world. We are thankful to share this special gift with our local, regional, and global community, thanks to our underwriters.