40th Anniversary: Charles Simic and Nikky Finney Poetry Reading

To kick off the start of The Frost Place's 40th Anniversary weekend, we are happy to present reading by Charles Simic and Nikky Finney.

Charles Simic is widely recognized as one of the most visceral and unique poets writing today. Simic’s work has won numerous awards, among them the 1990 Pulitzer Prize, the MacArthur Foundation “genius grant,” the Griffin International Poetry Prize, and, simultaneously, the Wallace Stevens Award and appointment as U.S. Poet Laureate.

Nikky Finney was born in South Carolina. The daughter of a lawyer and teacher, Finney’s parents were both active in the Civil Rights movement and her childhood was shaped by the turmoil and unrest of the South in the 1960s and ‘70s. In an interview with the Oxford American, Finney noted: “I’ve never been far away from the human-rights struggle black people have been involved with in the South. That has been one of the backdrops of my entire life.” Finney’s engagement with political activism has also influenced her trajectory as a poet. Carefully weaving the personal and political, Finney’s poetry is known for its graceful, heartfelt synthesis of the two