MFA Reading: Joseph Bathanti

The History Center’s Italian American Collection Scholar-in-Residence, Joseph Bathanti, will read selections of his work and be on hand after the reading to sign copies of his texts.

This program is offered in conjunction with the History Center’s Italian American Collection Scholar-in-Residence Program and Chatham University’s Department of Creative Writing. Books will be available for purchase at the reading.

About Joseph Bathanti

Joseph Bathanti is the Poet Laureate of North Carolina. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pa., he has BA & MA degrees in English Literature from the University of Pittsburgh, as well as an MFA in Creative Writing from Warren Wilson College. Bathanti came to North Carolina as a VISTA Volunteer in 1976 to work with prison inmates. He is Professor of Creative Writing at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC where he is also the Writer-in-Residence for the University’s Watauga Global Community and Director of Writing in the Field. Bathanti is the author of eight books of poetry: Communion Partners; Anson County; The Feast of All Saints; This Metal; Land of Amnesia; Restoring Sacred Art; Sonnets of The Cross; and Concertina. His first novel, East Liberty, winner of the Carolina Novel Award, was published in 2001 by Banks Channel Books in Wilmington, NC. His latest novel, Coventry, winner of the 2006 Novello Literary Award, was published by Novello Festival Press in Charlotte, NC.