The library is proud to host Pearl's Books and award-winning poet Traci Brimhall for a reading and book signing feat uring her nonfiction debut\, The Grief Artist.
\nThis essay collection is a meditat ion about grief\, death\, art and how we live today in contemporary Americ an culture. Brimhall travels around the country visiting ghost towns\, hau nted houses\, hospice patients and devotees of the paranormal in pursuit o f a collective understanding of death\, dying\, and grief. Brimhall examin es the wreaths and tableaux of Victorian mourners\, death photography and mourning fashions. She attempts to talk to the dead and visits a museum of haunted objects in the effort to experience something spiritual and uncan ny. She makes blankets for hospice patients and interviews supernaturalist s all while trying to understand her own grief and asks the questions\, ho w do we grieve communally and is it even possible? Through personal story\ , historical research and cultural analysis Brimhall makes a case for a co llective understanding of death and mourning but her book is also\, like M olly McCully Brown says\, a &ldquo\;wild catalog of &lsquo\;reasons for li ving\,&rsquo\;&rdquo\; and Brimhall&rsquo\;s The Grief Artist is a fierce\, soulful\, and a necessary book for today&rsquo\;s world. \;
\nPearl's Books will be selling Brimhall's book and a book signing will follow the discussion.
\nTraci Brimhall is a distinguished professor of creative writing at K ansas State University\, as well as the 2025 Poet-in-Residence at the Gugg enheim. She is the author of five collections of poetry\, most recently Love Prodigal (Copper Canyon Press). Her nonfiction debut\, The Grief Artist\, is published by Sarabande Books.
\nBrimhall is known for poems that marry the ordinary with the surreal. Her work has app eared widely in journals and magazines such as The New Yorker\, Orion\, Th e Atlantic\, The New Republic\, Poetry\, The Nation\, and The New York Tim es Magazine. Through fellowships with the National Endowment of the Arts\, National Park Service\, and Academy of American Poets she&rsquo\;s taught writing workshops in farm schools\, art museums\, libraries\, medical com munities\, and the outdoors. She&rsquo\;s also received a Karnes Fellowshi ps through Purdue Library&rsquo\;s Special Collections to study the lost p oem drafts of Amelia Earhart.
\nShe is the current poet laureate of Kansas\, where her initiatives have centered on uniting the state&rsquo\;s agricultural roots with the literary arts. Through poetry cookbooks\, foo d-based mad lib poems\, and bringing poetry to the State Fair\, her litera ry arts advocacy seeks ways to bring the nourishment of language to all Ka nsans.
\nFor disability accommodations\, call 479 .856.7170 or email kidsquestions@faylib.org \;2-3 weekdays before a program. Plan your visit by viewing our building map \;and details on accessibility services.
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