Poet and Author Jim Daniels to Give Free Reading on Campus

Award-winning poet and author Jim Daniels will give a free public reading on Wednesday, April 2, at 7 p.m. in the Power Center Ballroom.

Presented by Duquesne’s First-Year Writing Program, the reading helps students experience literature off the printed page. As part of the curriculum of the freshman writing classes, students have been studying Daniels’ work this semester and will attend the reading.

Daniels, the Thomas Stockham Baker Professor of English at Carnegie Mellon University, is the fourth speaker with strong Pittsburgh ties to be featured at the annual reading. Prior to Daniels, the event has brought to campus poet Terrance Hayes, author Stewart O’Nan and poet Toi Derricotte.

John Fried, associate professor of English and coordinator of this year’s event, said, “We like to invite local writers whose writing we feel will be a good fit for the First-Year Writing Program. Jim Daniels is just a perfect fit. All his writing—his poetry, his fiction, even his screenplays and films—have a kind of gritty realism to them the students really enjoy.”

Daniels’ recent books include Birth Marks and All of the Above, both poetry, and the short fiction Trigger Man: More Tales of the Motor City. He has written three produced screenplays, including, most recently, Mr. Pleasant. Daniels’ poems have appeared in the Pushcart Prize and Best American Poetry anthologies. He has earned the Brittingham Prize for Poetry, two fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and two fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

For more information, email english@duq.edu.