Paul S. Flores, who has just been named an American Book Award winner for "We Still Be," his collection of poems and performances, will share and discuss his work at Penfield Library Speaker’s Corner at 3 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 14.
“Paul has done so much to earn this award,” said Soma Mei Sheng Frazier, organizer and teacher of SUNY Oswego’s fall 2024 Living Writers Series. “He’s a spoken-word legend from way back, since his iconic HBO appearance. But he’s also a PEN award-winning novelist, and his plays have been staged in the U.S. as well as Cuba, Mexico, and El Salvador.”
The Living Writers Series and the Latino and Latin American Studies program are cohosting Flores with Penfield Library as part of "Latino Poetry: Places We Call Home," a major public humanities initiative taking place across the nation in 2024 and 2025, directed by Library of America and funded with generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities and Emerson Collective.
“We certainly didn’t know he’d win this prestigious award just prior to his visit,” Frazier added, “but it doesn’t surprise me. Beyond being one of America’s most influential performance artists, he is a celebrated arts educator and we’re lucky to host him for Latin American Heritage Month on campus, September 15 to October 15.”
At the event, Flores will perform poetry, discuss his work and take questions from the audience. This is the 45th annual American Book Awards. Established in 1978, the awards celebrate “outstanding literary achievement from the entire spectrum of America’s diverse literary community.” Previous winners include Edwidge Danticat and Sandra Cisneros.
-- Submitted by the Living Writers Series