Visiting Writers Series to feature Kansas poet laureate on Oct. 22

Visiting Writers Series to feature Kansas poet laureate on Oct. 22

Northwest Missouri State University's 2026-27 Visiting Writers Series continues this month with the poet laureate of Kansas as her nonfiction debut hits bookshelves.

Traci Brimhall will present her work from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 22, in the J.W. Jones Student Union Tower View Dining Room. The event is free and open to the public.

"Traci Brimhall's work exemplifies why we return to art again and again," Daniel Biegelson, the series director and a senior instructor of English, said. "It reminds us that writing is not an escape from the world but a way of attending to it more closely. In this sense, her work grapples with experiences that resist easy explanation."

Brimhall is the author of five poetry collections, including "Our Lady of the Ruins," a winner of the Barnard Women Poets Prize, and "Rookery," a winner of the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award. Her most recent collection, "Love Prodigal," was published by Copper Canyon Press in 2024.

Her nonfiction debut, "The Grief Artist," published this month by Sarabande Books, explores grief, death and art through personal narrative, historical research and cultural criticism.

"'The Grief Artist,' her first book of nonfiction, is particularly moving in the way it explores death and mortality, mourning and memory, ritual and magic. Braiding together research, personal narrative and self-reflection, she transforms private experience into something that invites communal reflection."

In addition to serving as the poet laureate of Kansas, Brimhall is a recipient of an NEA Literature Fellowship and Pushcart Prize, and she was a 2025 Poet-in-Residence at the Guggenheim Museum.

To learn more about Brimhall and her work, visit https://tracibrimhallpoet.com/.

The Visiting Writers Series is designed to enrich Northwest's educational mission while promoting the values of community, civil discourse and self-expression. Northwest's Green Tower Press and the School of Language, Literature and Writing sponsor the series.

For more information about the Visiting Writers Series, contact Biegelson at [email protected] or 660.562.1266.