Poets and editors Duriel E. Harris (“Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora”) and Ashaki M. Jackson (“The Offing”) discuss their editorial careers, the mission and work of the journals they manage, and working with and advocating for Black writers.

This virtual event will be broadcasted via Zoom. Please register here.

Conceptual artist and scholar, Duriel E. Harris is the author of three critically acclaimed volumes of poetry: Drag (2003); Amnesiac: Poems (2010); and No Dictionary of a Living Tongue (Nightboat, 2017), finalist for the Audre Lorde Award. Multi-genre works include the one-woman theatrical performance Thingification, the videopoem collaboration Speleology, and the conceptual sound-image project Blood Labyrinth. Appearances include performances at the Greenhouse Theater, the Chicago Jazz Festival, Naropa, Babylon Cinema (Berlin), Votive (Auckland), Babel Theatre (Beirut), the Art Institute of Chicago, and the Festival Internacional de Poesía de La Habana. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, BAX, Letters to the Future, Of Poetry and Protest, the &Now Awards, Imagined Theatres, PEN America, and Poets.org, among others. Harris is Professor of English at Illinois State University and Editor of the award-winning literary magazine Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora.

Dr. Ashaki M. Jackson is the author of two chapter-length collections, including Language Lesson (Miel, 2016). An Executive Editor at The Offing, Jackson’s writing is included in Obsidian, CURA, Prairie Schooner, Midnight Breakfast, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, and Bettering American Poetry, among other publications. She is a social psychologist and program evaluator residing in Los Angeles, California.