Visiting Writers Lecture Series

Nikky Finney was born by the sea in South Carolina. She is the author of four collections of poetry, On Wings Made of Gauze, Rice, recipient of a PEN America Open Book Award, and The World is Round, recipient of the 2004 Benjamin Franklin Award for Poetry, and her most recent work, Head Off & Split published by Northwestern University Press in 2011, recipient of the 2011 National Book Award in Poetry. In 1998 she authored a collection of short stories, Heartwood, written especially for literacy students. Finney has also written the script for the PBS documentary “For Posterity’s Sake: Lexington, Kentucky photographers Morgan and Marvin Smith,” the liner notes for folksinger Toshi Reagon’s compact disc “Kindness,” and the introduction to photographer Bill Gaskins’ collection, Good and Bad Hair. She has been awarded the Kentucky Foundation for Women “Artists Fellowship Award” and The Governor’s Award in the Arts.” She has taught at Smith Coll