This Wednesday, Guest Poet Austin Smith is doing a reading of some of his works. Smith was born on a family dairy farm in northwestern Illinois. He has had poems published in The New Yorker, Poetry Magazine, Yale Review, Sewanee Review, Threepenny Review, New England Review, and many other publications! Along with these publications, Smith has two collections out, Almanac and Flyover Country. Currently, he teaches at Stanford University.
His poetry challenges that the American Midwest is a mere “flyover country,” while at the same time challenging America’s state of constant war, making connections between the Midwest and the rest of the world. It calls to mind the violence that exists in America by exploring the beauty and cruelty of the rural American Midwest.
Smith’s reading is at 7pm on the 3rd Floor’s Common Room on Wednesday, November 7. You don’t want to miss it!