Rising poet to share social justice works

Free Cal Lutheran event on Oct. 12 features Jamaal May

Download photo

Jamaal May’s first collection of poems, the 2013 book “Hum,” won a Beatrice Hawley Award and an American Library Association Notable Book Award, was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award and a Tufts Discovery Award, and received a Lannan Foundation Grant.  

(THOUSAND OAKS – Sept. 23, 2016) A rising star on the national poetry scene will read and discuss his work at California Lutheran University on Oct. 12.

Reading and Conversation with Poet Jamaal May will begin at 4 p.m. in the William Rolland Gallery of Fine Art on the Thousand Oaks campus as part of the Guest Writer Series. 

May’s first collection of poems, the 2013 book “Hum,” won a Beatrice Hawley Award and an American Library Association Notable Book Award, was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award and a Tufts Discovery Award, and received a Lannan Foundation Grant.  

The Detroit resident released his second collection, “The Big Book of Exit Strategies,” in April. He has written two poetry chapbooks, “The God Engine” and “The Whetting of Teeth.”

May’s other honors include a Spirit of Detroit Award, the Wood Prize from Poetry magazine, an Indiana Review Poetry Prize and fellowships from Cave Canem, Bread Loaf, The Frost Place and Stadler Center for Poetry at Bucknell University. He was the 2014-2016 Kenyon Review Fellow at Kenyon College and a Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellow in Italy. He is a three-time Rustbelt Regional Slam champion and has been a finalist at several national and international poetry slams.

Appearing regularly in respected literary journals including “Ploughshares” and “Poetry,” his poems show a commitment to social justice as they seek to awaken cultural and political engagement in readers.

May founded and serves as co-director, filmmaker and graphic designer for the Organic Weapon Arts Chapbook and Video Series. An engaging speaker, he has been a poetry teacher in the Detroit public school system and a faculty member at Vermont College of Fine Arts. He earned a master of fine arts from Warren Wilson College.

Cal Lutheran’s Artists and Speakers Series, English Department and Rolland Gallery are sponsoring the free event. For more information, contact assistant professor

Jacqueline Lyons at jlyons@callutheran.edu.

©