Author Event & Book Signing with Authors, Poets & Professors Nikki Giovanni & Lucinda Roy
Venue: Barnes & Noble, Christiansburg
Organizations: Lucinda Roy, Nikki Giovanni
Date: Wednesday, December 13, 2017
Time: 7:00 - 10:00 PM
Event Types: Speaking Engagements
Cost: Free
Description:
Barnes & Noble presents an Author Event and Book Signing with Authors, Poets & Professors Nikki Giovanni and Lucinda Roy on Wednesday, December 13, 2017.

Join us for a special author event with Author Nikki Giovanni and her latest book "A Good Cry: What We Learn From Tears and Laughter".

"In A Good Cry", she takes us into her confidence, describing the joy and peril of aging and recalling the violence that permeated her parents' marriage and her early life. Nikki also celebrates her good friend Maya Angelou and the many years of friendship, poetry, and kitchen-table laughter they shared before Angelou's death in 2014.

Nikki Giovanni is one of the best-known African-American poets who reached prominence during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Her unique and insightful poetry testifies to her own evolving awareness and experiences: from child to young woman, from naive college freshman to seasoned civil rights activist, from daughter to mother. Frequently anthologized, Giovanni’s poetry expresses strong racial pride and respect for family. Her informal style makes her work accessible to both adults and children.

A lung cancer survivor, Giovanni also contributed an introduction to the anthology Breaking the Silence: Inspirational Stories of Black Cancer Survivors (Hilton Publishing, 2005).

Her honors include a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1970, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Award for Dedication and Commitment to Service in 2009, three NAACP Image Awards for Literature in 1998, the Langston Hughes award for Distinguished Contributions to Arts and Letters in 1996, as well as more than twenty honorary degrees from national colleges and universities. She has been given keys to more than a dozen cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Miami, and New Orleans.

Several magazines have named Giovanni Woman of the Year, including Essence, Mademoiselle, Ebony, and Ladies Home Journal. She was the first recipient of the Rosa Parks Woman of Courage Award. She has served as poetry judge for the National Book Awards and was a finalist for a Grammy Award in the category of Spoken Word.

She is currently University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech, where she has taught since 1987.

Links:

• http://www.nikki-giovanni.com/
• https://www.facebook.com/NikkiGiovanniAuthor

Lucinda Roy is an Alumni Distinguished Professor in English at Virginia Tech where she teaches creative writing in the graduate and undergraduate programs. A 2005 recipient of the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Outstanding Faculty Award, Professor Roy’s publications include the poetry collections "Fabric", "Wailing the Dead to Sleep" and "The Humming Birds" (winner of the Eighth Mountain Poetry Prize); and the novels "Lady Moses" (a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers selection), and "The Hotel Alleluia", both published by HarperCollins.

Her memoir-critique "No Right to Remain Silent: What We’ve Learned from the Tragedy at Virginia Tech" was published by Random House. Professor Roy was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Richmond in 2000, and she was selected by the Virginia Press Women’s Association as Newsmaker of the Year in 2009. In 2017, she was the first recipient of the Zenobia Lawrence Hikes Award.

At Virginia Tech, Professor Roy has served as Chair of English, and as Associate Dean for Curriculum, Outreach, and Diversity. She has been a guest on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, The Today Show, Sunday Morning, Oprah, NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show, Sky News, Al Jazeera, and many TV and radio shows. She has also been a featured guest on PBS and BBC documentaries. Her poetry, fiction, and commentaries have appeared in numerous publications including North American Review, American Poetry Review, the New York Times, Newsweek’s College Guide, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Guardian, Inside Higher Education, and USA Today. Professor Roy is currently at work on another poetry collection, articles and commentaries on school safety, a literary sci-fi novel, and a series of oil paintings depicting the Middle Passage. She gives keynotes and presentations around the country and abroad on school safety, effective communication, education reform, diversity, and creative writing.

Links:

• http://lucindaroy.com
• https://www.twitter.com/LRoyAuthor

Admission is free and all are welcome.

For more information, visit: https://www.facebook.com/events/1971997976458426 or http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com/store/2067 or https://www.facebook.com/bncburg or call 540-381-4923.