On Thursday, February 11, 2021, at 7 p.m. Eastern, a live broadcast of the 2020-2021 Blaney Lecture will be delivered by Adrian Matejka. He is the author of the graphic novel Last On His Feet (Liveright, 2021) and the poetry collection Map to the Stars (Penguin Books, 2017), a finalist for the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, and a 2019 Academy of American Poets Laureate Fellow.
The Blaney Lecture on contemporary poetry and poetics is offered annually by a prominent poet. Past lectures have been given by Sharon Olds, Joy Harjo, Richard Blanco, Carolyn Forche, Elizabeth Alexander, Susan Howe, and Anne Carson. The lecture was created in memory of former Academy of American Poets Board member Dr. Dorothy Gulbenkian Blaney, past president of Cedar Crest College and champion of women and education, by a gift from her estate.