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Well-Known Poet Toi Derricotte to Give a Poetry Workshop and Reading of Her Works Thursday, Oct. 3

By Rebecca Mullins

Oct. 3, 2013. This year’s Rachel Rivers-Coffey Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at Appalachian State University is Toi Derricotte. She writes with an intensity that makes you live, breathe and feel the experiences of her characters. Derricotte’s writing has touched the hearts and lives of many through her poetry collections and memoirs.

This evening, Derricotte will be at three events in ASU’s Plemmons Student Union.

  • From 12:30-1:45 p.m. in the Table Rock Room she will be giving a craft talk titled, “Social Butterfly or Recluse: Some Thoughts About Writing In and Out of the Community.” 
  • From 6:00-7:15 p.m. in the Price Lake Room there will be a pre-reading reception with free food where she will meet and talk with those attending.
  • At 7:30 p.m. in the Table Rock Room she will read a collection of personally chosen works that she has completed. 

ToiToi Derricotte has received numerous awards for her works dating from 1985-2012. Her most recent work, the poetry collection “The Undertaker’s Daughter,” received the Paterson Award for Sustained Literary Achievement for Previous Winners of The Paterson Poetry Prize and the PEN Voelcker Award for Poetry. 

She was chosen as this years Distinguished Professor of Creative Writing at ASU for her recognition and particular style.

“I think she’s one of the great poets writing poetry now. Her language is lyrical, she takes enormous chances, and her honesty is incomparable,” said Jospeh Bathanti, Poet Laureate of North Carolina and professor at ASU.

Derricotte covers emotional topics in many of her works and excels in bringing them home. She writes in a form that makes anyone able to understand the meaning behind her words. 

“She read in our Visiting Writers Series about two years ago and everyone loved her.”

 This year she’s sure to make another lasting impression. Bathanti has had the pleasure of hearing her speak and read before and conveyed her personable and friendly atmosphere. Her poetry can be enjoyed by anyone, not just other poets and writers.

“People that haven’t been to poetry readings are taken in by her because she’s such a humane and loving person,” expressed Bathanti.

This is your chance to come out this evening for these free events to hear one of America’s best living poets.

If you have any questions regarding the visiting writer series or Toi Derricotte, click here or call (828) 262-2871.

“Poems that stick with you like a song that won’t stop repeating itself in your brain, poems whose cadences burrow into your bloodstream, orchestrating your breathing long before their sense attaches its hooks to your heart,” wrote The Washington Post on Derricotte’s poetry collection, “Captivity.”