The English and Philosophy Department at Missouri Southern will present a poetry reading by Allison Blevins at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 18, in Room 205 of the North End Zone facility.
Blevins, an adjunct professor at Missouri Southern, will read from “Slowly/Suddenly,” her first full-length poetry collection. She has previously published the chapbooks “Susurration,” “Letters to Joan” and “A Season for Speaking.”
“Slowly/Suddenly” deals with trauma, disabilities and queer experience.
“Even if you’re not a poetry reader, you can still get something from a poetry reading,” said Blevins. “Just listen. You can get so much from the sound and rhythm.”
She serves as the director of Small Harbor Publishing and executive editor for “The Museum of Americana,” an online literary review dedicated to fiction, poetry, nonfiction, photography, and artwork that examines unknown aspects of Americana.
Her work has appeared in the journals “Mid-American Review,” “The Minnesota Review,” “Raleigh Review” and “Sinister Wisdom.”
She has been nominated for the Stephen Meats Poetry Prize, the Stanley Hank Memorial Prize, the Best of the Net, and the Pushcart Prize. She has also been a finalist for the Cowles Poetry Book Prize, the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry, the Glass Chapbook Series, the Wicked Woman Poetry Prize from BrickHouse Books, and the Moon City Poetry Award.