March 9, 2016

 

The keynote event will be held March 24, at 7 p.m., in Cisel Recital Hall and is free and open to the public

 

Contacts:

Office of International Studies & Outreach, 657-1705
University Relations & Communications, 657-2266

 

MSU BILLINGS NEWS SERVICES — To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the most prestigious award in journalism and the arts, Montana State University Billings will host a keynote reading by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Vijay Seshadri, who will be interviewed by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Matt Brown.

 

The free program, which will be held March 24, at 7 p.m., in Cisel Recital Hall, is part of a community yearlong series titled “Pulitzer Poetry 100,” presented by Humanities Montana, MSUB, Arts Without Boundaries, University of Montana, the Big Sky Writing Workshops and the High Plains BookFest to foster conversations about the journalistic, literary and artistic values the Pulitzer’s legacy represents.

 

Earlier in the day, students and faculty have been invited to a private gathering with Seshadri at MSUB Extended Campus where he will discuss his poetry and his process.

 

“This is a rare opportunity for students and faculty,” said Tami Haaland, professor of creative writing and former Montana Poet Laureate. 

 

Seshadri is regarded as a highly-respected poet with three collections of poetry, one of which, “3 Sections” was awarded the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. His other collections of poems include James Laughlin Award-winner “The Long Meadow” and “Wild Kingdom” and have appeared, along with essays and reviews, in the “New Yorker” the “American Scholar” and the “Times Book Review.”

 

Seshadri will be interviewed by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Matt Brown, who has been awarded with two Pulitzer Prizes for breaking news and community service coverage of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Brown works as the Associated Press correspondent in Billings.

 

“The College of Arts and Sciences is excited to join Humanities Montana and other sponsors in hosting this outstanding event,” Haaland said. “The Pulitzer Prizes are the gold standard in the acknowledgement of powerful literature and journalism. It’s an honor to bring Pulitzer Prize winners to our campus.”

 

The program is part of the Pulitzer Prizes Centennial Campfires Initiative, a joint venture of the Pulitzer Prizes Board and the Federation of State Humanities council in celebration of the 2016 centennial of the Prizes. The initiative seeks to illuminate the impact of journalism and the humanities on American life today, to imagine their future and to inspire generations to consider the values represented by the body of Pulitzer Prize-winning work.

 

The Pulitzer Prizes honors excellence in journalism and the arts and was established 100 years ago when Hungarian-American journalist and newspaper editor Joseph Pulitzer left a legacy to Columbia University to establish a journalism school and a prize in his name. Since then, the Pulitzer Prize has come to mean the very best in American journalism, letters, photography and music.

 

For more information about the series, visit Humanities Montana Pulitzer Poetry 100.

For more information about Seshadri, visit http://blueflowerarts.com/artist/vijay-seshadri/.