Please join Natalie J Graham and Ashaki M. Jackson as we read and be read from Citizen by Claudia Rankine

Natalie is a native of Gainesville, Florida. Natalie Graham earned her M.F.A. in Creative Writing at the University of Florida and Ph.D. in American Studies at Michigan State University. Her poems have appeared in Callaloo Journal,New England Review , Valley Voices: A Literary Review, and Southern Humanities Review ; and her articles have appeared in The Journal of Popular Culture and Transition. She is a Cave Canem fellow and associate professor of African American Studies CSUF at California State University, Fullerton. Begin with a Failed Body, her first full-length collection of poems, won the 2016 Cave Canem Poetry Prize. Natalie can be found atwww.nataliejgraham.com/

Ashaki M. Jackson is an applied social psychologist, program evaluator and poet who works with youth through research, evaluation and creative writing mentoring. She is a Cave Canem and VONA alumna who serves on theVIDA: Women in Literary Arts board. She is also co-founder of Women Who Submit. Her work appears in CURA and Prairie Schooner among other publications. Author of two chapter-length collections – Surveillance (Writ Large Press and Language Lesson (MIEL) – Jackson earned her creative writing MFA from Antioch University Los Angeles and a psychology doctorate from Claremont Graduate University. She lives in Los Angeles, California. Visit her at www.ashakijackson.com.

Thank you to Jack Jones Literary Arts for co-hosting this event.