G’Ra Asim, part of WashU’s first race and ethnicity cluster hire, is equally comfortable in front of an undergraduate classroom and at center stage of a punk rock concert.

Washington University English professor Carl Phillips was recently awarded the 2019 Los Angeles Times Book Award for his latest book of poems, “Wild Is the Wind.”

Author Naomi Jackson came to Washington University to give a reading in Hurst Lounge on Friday April 19. Brought by the English Department and the Center for Diversity and Inclusion (CDI), Jackson read from her debut novel “The Star Side of Bird Hill,” as well as her forthcoming book “Behind God’s Back” and an essay. She is currently an associate professor at City College in New York.

On Tuesday evening, the English Department’s Master of Fine Arts program held a reading at Duncker Hall with four participating graduating students. The program, for those who have never heard of it before, is an intense two-year program in which participants work towards degrees in fiction and poetry.

Professor Carl Phillips has been named a finalist for the National Book Award in poetry for his most recent book, “Double Shadow: Poems.” This is his fourth time being nominated for the award. “Double Shadow: Poems” is Phillips’ 11th published collection of poetry.