A native of Mississippi, Benjamin Morris is the author of one book of nonfiction and three books of poetry, most recently The Singing River. He holds an MSc in Creative Writing from the University of Edinburgh and a PhD in Archaeology from the University of Cambridge. His work has appeared in Oxford American, Lithub, and The Southern Review, and received fellowships from the Mississippi Arts Commission and Tulane University. He lives in New Orleans.

Schedule

11:15 am to Noon
Outside Museum, West Tent
Hurricanes Katrina & Rita at 20: An Anthology of Louisiana Poetry with Art
Featuring contributors Malaika Favorite, J. Bruce Fuller, Merrill Guillory, Patrice Melnick, Benjamin Morris, Michelle (M.A.) Nicholson, Valentine Pierce, Karisma Price, and Brad Richard, with editors Mona Lisa Saloy and John Warner Smith

12:15 pm to 12:45 pm
Cavalier House Books Tent
Book Signing

1:00 pm to 2:00 pm
Outside Museum, West Tent
The Louisiana Poet Laureate Presents Louisiana Poets, Volume 2
Dennis Formento, Phaeton’s Wheels
Olivia Clare Friedman, An Arm Fixed to a Wing: Poems
Skye Jackson, Libre
Benjamin Morris, The Singing River: Poems
Chuck Perkins, Beautiful and Ugly Too
with Gina Ferrara

2:15 pm to 3:00 pm
Cavalier House Books Tent
Book Signing

The Singing River: Poems

Drifting along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, The Singing River asks what can be saved in a place of shifting landscapes and ancient memory. Benjamin Morris’ debut collection meditates on the forces of nature that shape our notions of family and identity. Formally diverse and elegantly crafted, these poems bear witness to a region where the soil often finds blood and water mixed, tinged with hope that some of us may still emerge cleansed after going under.