Murray State University’s creative writing program hosts poet B.J. Wilson in Reading Series

Sep 24, 2021

MURRAY, Ky. — The creative writing program at Murray State University is pleased to announce its first reading of the 2021-22 school year. Poet and Department of English & Philosophy alumnus B.J. Wilson will read from his work on Thursday, September 30 at 7 p.m. via Zoom. The Zoom link can be accessed via the reading series website at murraystate.edu/english.

Wilson's work has appeared in Atlanta Review, The Louisville Review, New Madrid, Tar River Poetry and elsewhere. He is the author of the poetry collections Tuckasee (Finishing Line Press, 2020) and Naming the Trees (Main Street Rag, 2021). He earned his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in English from Murray State and his Master of Fine Arts from the Bluegrass Writers Studio at Eastern Kentucky University. Currently, he teaches English and creative writing at Jacksonville State University in Alabama. Wilson is also a songwriter and vocalist, and his music can be found on his website, bjwilsonpoet.com.

“The great French mime artist Marcel Marceau, whom I once witnessed on stage re-enacting the growth of a tree, called mime ‘the art of silence’,” says Ann Neelon, professor of English at Murray State. “Silence is also very much at the heart of how B.J. Wilson brings nature slowly and poignantly to life in Naming the Trees, and reading it is a similarly riveting experience. It is a liminal book, luminously on the line between rural and urban, self and other, secrecy and revelation.”

Wilson’s books are also available for purchase at the Murray State University Bookstore. Questions about the reading series can be directed to Carrie Jerrell at cjerrell1@murraystate.edu.