Award-winning poet Elizabeth Alexander, widely known for composing and delivering “Praise Song for the Day” at the inauguration of President Barack Obama, will present the 79th annual Hopwood Awards Lecture at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday at Rackham Amphitheatre.
Alexander has published numerous books of poetry. Her most recent collection is “Crave Radiance: New and Selected Poems, 1990-2010.” She has written poetry for young adult readers, as well as two essay collections for general audiences. Her play “Diva Studies” was produced at the Yale School of Drama. She also is an essayist, playwright and teacher.
In a 2008 interview with The Wall Street Journal, Alexander commented on her position as inaugural poet: “Obama has put poetry front and center, only the fourth time that this has happened at an inauguration. It says culture matters, that it’s transforming and not merely stirring, that it’s fundamental to ways in which we can think about moving forward.”
Alexander’s writing has garnered a number of awards including the Alphonse Fletcher Sr. Fellowship for work that contributes to improving race relations in American society and furthers the broad social goals of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954. She is also winner of the first Jackson Prize for Poetry, a Guggenheim fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, and the Quantrell Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching at University of Chicago. She currently serves as chair of the African American Studies Department at Yale University.
Each year, according to the bequest of American dramatist Avery Hopwood, the Hopwood Program awards cash prizes to U-M students for outstanding creative work. Last year, the program awarded more than $187,000 to students to encourage creative work in writing.
