Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Stephen Dunn to read work at Southeast

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Stephen Dunn will present a reading of his work at 7 p.m. April 16 in Rose Theatre at Southeast Missouri State University.

The event, part of the Dorothy and Wedel Nilsen Visiting Writer Series, is free and open to the public. A book signing will follow the reading.

Besides the Pulitzer, Dunn has won the James Wright Award, an Academy Award for Literature and the National Poetry Series Prize, among others. His work is praised for its plain-spoken imagery exploring the social, cultural and psychological issues of the middle class in wise and often witty poems, according to a news release from Southeast.

Some of Dunn's works include "Lines of Defense," "Here and Now: Poems," "Different Hours" and "Everything Else in the World."

Dunn was born in New York City in 1939. He earned a bachelor of arts degree in history and English from Hofstra University, attended the New School Writing Workshops and finished his master of arts in creative writing at Syracuse University.

Dunn was a first-generation college student who also played basketball and later became a professional basketball player. When asked in a National Public Radio interview whether he found any connections between the two, he said, "the similarity between poetry and basketball is the chance to be better than yourself, to transcend yourself."

Dunn has taught creative writing at Wichita State University, University of Washington, Columbia University, University of Michigan, Princeton University and the Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.