The Lee University 2023-2024 Writer’s Series will welcome poets Anna Laura Reeve and Mildred Kiconco Barya on Thursday, Oct. 19, at 5 p.m. in the Edna Minor Conn Lecture Hall, located in the Vest Building on Lee’s campus.  

“We are so glad that Reeve and Barya are coming to share with us their love of writing and their poems,” said Dr. William Woolfitt, associate professor of creative writing at Lee and director of the Writer’s Series.  

Reeve will read from her debut collection of poems “Reaching the Shore of the Sea of Fertility.” Released in April 2023, it taps into questions of identity and deep issues of motherhood. Reeve’s poems embrace parenthood and art as equals in a life well lived and show the struggles of home, family, and an environment that is as vulnerable to change as she is herself.  

Born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee, Reeve has received the Beloit Poetry Journal’s 2022 Adrienne Rich Award and has been a finalist for the 2022 Heartwood Poetry Prize and the 2022 Ron Rash Award in Poetry. She has also had her work published in Terrain.org, The Journal, Red Tree Review, and many others.  

Reeve received her Master of Arts in literature and poetry writing from the University of Tennessee and is assistant editor of Juke Joint, a literary magazine based in Jackson, Mississippi.  

Barya will read from her latest collection of poems “The Animals of My Earth School.” Released in April 2023, it has deep roots in the intimacy between humanity and nature. Barya’s poems pose the question, “Who speaks for the animals?” and she investigates this by listening to the animals as if they really do speak.  

Barya was born and raised in Uganda but now resides in North Carolina where she is an assistant professor of creative writing and world literature at the University of North Carolina Asheville. She has three other poetry books published, as well as prose, hybrids, and poems published in The Cincinnati Review, Tin House, Prairie Schooner, and others.  

Barya received her Bachelor of Arts in organizational psychology from Makerere University, her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Syracuse University, and her Doctorate in English, creative writing and literature, from the University of Denver.  

There will be a Q&A session following each of the readings, and the event will conclude with a book signing by both Reeve and Barya.  

The event is non-ticketed, free, and open to the public.  

For more information about Reeve, visit https://www.annalaurareeve.com/.  

For more information about Barya, visit https://mildredbarya.com/.  

For more information about the Writer’s Series, email Woolfitt at [email protected].