UGA Creative Writing Program

Magdalena Zurawski has an essay in the Fall 2026 issue of The Georgia Review, "Pan Tupek Kielbaski Is Dead." You can read it online or pick up your own copy of the fall issue of The Georgia Review.

https://www.thegeorgiareview.com/posts/pan-tupek-kielbaski-is-dead/

The Decatur Book Festival is this weekend! Make sure to check out the discussion between Aruni Kashyap and Malavika Kannan: “Coming of Age in a Rapidly Changing World: Fiction" at the Marriott Conference Center on Saturday. The discussion will be moderated by playwright Topher Payne and there will be time for book signing afterward.

Oct 03, 2026, 12:15 PM – 1:15 PM EDT
Marriott - Henry Oliver Room, 130 Clairemont Ave, Decatur, GA 30030

https://www.decaturbookfestival.com/event-details/coming-of-age-in-a-rapidly-changing-world-fiction

This is a night you won't want to miss! Our 2026-2027 Blakely Program includes an evening of poetry with Anne Boyer, our Diann Blakely Visiting Poet, and Magdalena Zurawski, Associate Professor of English & Creative Writing!

Wed, Oct 7 2026, 6 - 8pm
The Athenaeum | 287 W Broad St, Athens, GA 30605

Make plans for GMOA's event: “Edmonia Lewis: Said in Stone," with poet Tyehimba Jess this Thursday, October 1st at 5:30 p.m.

Georgia Museum of Art
90 Carlton Street, Athens, Georgia

Join us for a dynamic interdisciplinary conversation exploring poetry and literary themes in the exhibition “Edmonia Lewis: Said in Stone.” The first Black and Indigenous woman sculptor to achieve international acclaim, Lewis broke social, racial and geographical boundaries through her art. Between 1866 and 1872, she completed a series of marble sculptures on the popular theme of Hiawatha and Minnehaha, drawn from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic poem “The Song of Hiawatha” (1855). This panel considers various connections to poetry during Lewis’ lifetime and today.

Our panelists include poet Tyehimba Jess, whose Pulitzer Prize-winning book of poetry “Olio” (2016) includes a section that gives voice to Edmonia’s Lewis and her sculptures, and Barbara McCaskill, Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of English at UGA and scholar of African American literature. The program will begin with a reading by Jess of selections from “Olio,” followed by a discussion moderated by Shawnya Harris, the museum’s Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson Curator of African American and African Diasporic Art and co-curator of the exhibition.

Born in Detroit, poet Tyehimba Jess earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago and his master of fine arts degree from New York University. He is the author of “leadbelly” (2005) and “Olio” (2016). A two-time member of the Chicago Green Mill Slam team, Jess was also Chicago’s poetry ambassador to Accra, Ghana. His work has been featured in numerous anthologies, including “Soulfires: Young Black Men in Love and Violence” (1996), “Slam: The Competitive Art of Performance Poetry” (2000) and “Dark Matter 2: Reading the Bones” (2004). He is the author of “African American Pride: Celebrating Our Achievements, Contributions, and Enduring Legacy” (2003).

His honors include a Pulitzer Prize, a Whiting Writers’ Award, a Chicago Sun-Times Poetry Award and a Gwendolyn Brooks Open Mic Poetry Award. A former artist in residence with Cave Canem, Jess has been awarded fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Illinois Arts Council and the Fine Arts Work Center at Provincetown as well as a Lannan Writing Residency. Jess has taught at the Juilliard School, the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and at the College of Staten Island in New York City.

Andrew Zawacki's poem “Afterpastoral” will appear in Magnum photographer Mark Power’s 10-year project ‘Good Morning, America: Volume V’, to be published this October by GOST.

Power shared, "The book will contain 105 pictures, about 40% more than any of the previous four, a 7,500 word essay by Brad Zellar and a poem by Andrew Zawacki. Both texts were specially commissioned, and both are extraordinary. There’s also a lengthy Q&A between Aaron Schuman and myself, which will be available separately."

Augustine Obasi's creative nonfiction piece EMERGENCY CONTACT was published this week at JMWW. Here's an excerpt:

--
The impeccable silence of the embassy was punctuated by drumming heartbeats, apparent through the squinting eyes of applicants worn by sleepless nights. Eyes that desperately searched for an escape from the grip of Nigeria, which like a monster, ate her children and their dreams.
--

Read the full piece here: https://jmwwblog.wordpress.com/2026/09/24/creative-nonfiction-emergency-contact-by-augustine-obasi/

Come hear from our 2026-2027 Diann Blakely Visting Poet Anne Boyer as she presents her lecture "They who are there": On Animals, Prayer, and the Lyric Horizon

Tuesday, October 6
6pm Park Hall 265

The Creative Writing Program is thrilled to announce our 2026-2027 Blakely Program Visiting Poet, Anne Boyer! Anne will be in Athens next month from October 5th through October 7th for a short-term residency with a series of events at the University of Georgia.

Please visit BLAKELY.UGA.EDU to learn more and see the detailed schedule of events!

Anne Boyer is a poet, artist, and essayist. Her works include THE UNDYING, GARMENTS AGAINST WOMEN, and A HANDBOOK OF DISAPPOINTED FATE. Her honors include a Pulitzer Prize, a Windham-Cambell prize, the Cy Twombly Award for Poetry from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Judith Wilson Fellowship in Poetry at Cambridge, the CLMP Firecracker award in poetry, and a Whiting award. Originally from central Kansas, Boyer now lives in coastal Scotland and teaches at the University of St. Andrews.

We are so thrilled to hear from acclaimed poet Patricia Smith, the 2025 National Book Award winner for THE INTENTIONS OF THUNDER, a 2026 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry finalist, and recipient of the 2026 NAACP Image Award for Poetry.

On Monday, November 2nd, join us at the Athens-Clarke County Library for the Lanier Reading Series with Professor Chigozie Obioma where Smith will read from THE INTENTIONS OF THUNDER, join Obioma in conversation and then field questions from the audience. GHOST will be on site with books for sale and we will have a time for book signings both before and after the reading.

https://engl.franklin.uga.edu/events/patricia-smith

Another book launch event for a UGA CWP alumnus, Bradley Bazzle! Swing by Rec Room Books on Monday to check it out!