CONWAY, Ark. (October
8, 2019) — Jessica Jacobs’ poems have the
clear gaze of a camera, the tenderness of the “tender skin of a plum,” and the
heat of a summer night in Florida. —Rita Mae Reese
Nickole Brown works the miracle of all
good art, recording the unbearable even as she transforms it. —Ellen Bass
Poets Jessica
Jacobs and Nickole Brown will visit Hendrix College as Murphy Visiting Writers
on October 24, 2019. They will read from and discuss their work at 7:30 p.m. in
Reves Recital Hall, Trieschmann Fine Arts Building. This event is free and open
to the public, and will be followed by a reception and book signing in
Trieschmann Gallery.
Jessica Jacobs
and Nickole Brown are a married couple residing in Asheville, North Carolina.
However, they are no strangers to Hendrix College. Jacobs was the
Hendrix-Murphy Writer-in-Residence in 2016 and has been a Visiting Assistant
Professor of English at Hendrix, while Brown has regularly served as a judge
for the Hendrix Aonian poetry writing
contest. Both Jacobs and Brown have served as outside readers for Creative
Writing senior theses.
Jessica Jacobs
holds an M.F.A. from Purdue University. She is the author of a collection of
poetry, Pelvis with Distance, winner
of the New Mexico Book Award in Poetry, and the chapbook In Whatever Light Left to Us. Her second book, a memoir-in-poems, Take Me With You, Wherever You’re Going,
was released in March 2019. Jacobs’ poetry, essays, and fiction have appeared
in many literary journals, and she is the Associate Editor of The Beloit Poetry Journal. She currently
serves as the Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at UNC-Wilmington’s MFA Program
and teaches at the Brandeis Collegiate Institute and a number of writing
conferences.
Nickole Brown
received her M.F.A. from Vermont College. She is the author of two books of
poetry, the “novel-in-poems” Sister
(re-issued in 2019) and the “biography-in-poems” Fanny Says. Her latest chapbook, To Those Who Were Our First Gods, was the winner of Rattle’s 2018
Chapbook Contest. She also has a new chapbook, The Donkey Elegies, coming out in January 2020. Brown is the Editor
for the Marie Alexander Poetry Series, and she formerly taught at the
University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She teaches periodically at the Sewanee
School of Letters MFA Program, the Great Smokies Writing Program at the University
of North Carolina-Asheville, and the Hindman Settlement School.
Brown and Jacobs
regularly teach at writing conferences, both solo and as a team. In addition to
a public reading, their week-long visit will allow them to teach three
workshops for Hendrix students and meet one-on-one with Creative Writing
students. They will also lead a discussion at the weekly Literature and
Language over Lunch program, visit classes, and engage in more casual
conversations with students. Through their visit, students will gain knowledge
about the craft of writing as well as practical advice about how writers live
in the world and opportunities available beyond Hendrix.
This event is
sponsored by the Hendrix-Murphy Foundation Programs in Literature and Language,
which are designed to enhance and enrich the study and teaching of literature
and language at Hendrix College. For more information about this and future
events, please contact Henryetta Vanaman, 501-450-4597 or vanaman@hendrix.edu.
About Hendrix College
A private liberal
arts college in Conway, Arkansas, Hendrix College consistently earns
recognition as one of the country’s leading liberal arts institutions, and is
featured in Colleges That Change Lives: 40 Schools That Will Change
the Way You Think About Colleges.
Its academic quality and rigor, innovation, and value have established Hendrix
as a fixture in numerous college guides, lists, and rankings. Founded in 1876,
Hendrix has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. To
learn more, visit www.hendrix.edu.