Each year we collaborate with Durham Book Festival to bring an outstanding writer to the city for the Festival, and to commission a new piece of work. This podcast – recorded by New Writing North – introduces the award-winning poet Lorna Goodison, who was the 2012 Durham Book Festival Laureate.
Born in Jamaica, where she grew up as one of nine children, Lorna Goodison is one of the most distinguished writers of her generation. She teaches in the Department of English and the Center for African and African American studies at the University of Michigan. Her many honours include the Commonwealth Poetry Prize (Americas Region), the Gold Musgrave Medal from Jamaica, and the Henry Russel Award from the University of Michigan. Her work includes Goldengrove: New and Selected Poems (2006), Guinea Woman: Selected Poems (2000), Harvey River: A Memoir of my Mother and her People (2007), and most recently a collection of short stories, By Love Possessed.
Lorna read from her work and presented a new poem, commissioned by Durham Book Festival and Durham University, at this special event, introduced by Professor Stephen Regan.
More information about previous Festival laureates can be found at the Centre for Poetry and Poetics. For more information about Durham Book Festival, see www.durhambookfestival.com.
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