Rowan College at Burlington County will host Pulitzer Prize winning author and Burlington County native Gregory Pardlo for an evening conversation at 5 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 11 in the Enterprise Center Auditorium on the Mount Laurel campus.
“We always enjoy hosting events that feature talented people from Burlington County who have made their mark on the world,” said RCBC President Paul Drayton. “It gives the students and community members a sense of what they can accomplish while showcasing the rich diversity of Burlington County.”
Gregory Pardlo’s collection Digest won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. Digest was also shortlisted for the 2015 NAACP Image Award and was a finalist for the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award. His other honors include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the New York Foundation for the Arts; his first collection Totem received the American Poetry Review/Honickman Prize in 2007. Pardlo’s poems appear in many publications such as The Nation, Ploughshares, Tin House, T he Norton Anthology of Contemporary African American Poetry, Best American Poetry. Pardlo, who was raised in Willingboro, lives with his family in Brooklyn.
“Homecomings like this — I, too, took classes at BCC in the 1990s — remind me of the vast opportunities we make possible by taking hold of our own education,” said Greg Pardlo. “I’m so eager to meet with students at RCBC, and to be inspired by them. I know firsthand how powerful and transformative it is to choose a future rather than simply accept whatever may be handed to us.”
The event was organized by the Office of Student Activities that strives to create the complete student campus experience. These opportunities have been expanded by the college’s partnership with Rowan University, which invites all RCBC students to attend university events as part of the Rowan Connection.
“Our students really have the best of both worlds when it comes to high-quality campus experiences from two outstanding institutions,” said Cathy Briggs, executive director of Student Success. “We are so excited to welcome Greg Pardlo to Rowan College at Burlington County and show our students that they too can experience phenomenal success.”
Tickets are required for entry into the event. Community members are $5 and tickets can be purchased at the door. Students, faculty, staff, and their guests are free, to reserve tickets contactbkenny@bcc.edu.
