Join the Lyceum Speaker Series Wednesday April 8, 2026 from 1pm-2pm in room CA 302 on the Annandale campus for an exciting presentation by Pulitzer Prize nominated poet Dr. Latorial Faison, Assistant Professor of English and Chair of the Department of Languages and Literature at Virginia State University.

Dr. Faison will discuss the writing process behind her recent poetry collection Nursey Rhymes in Blues, which was nominated for a 2026 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. This new poetry collection explores issues of “race, roots, culture, and identity.” With these poems, Dr. Faison pay[s] homage to the memory and work of elders and ancestors, [and] remembers her own matriarch, mother, grandmother—the rich memories of having grown up in rural, historic Southampton County, Virginia”. Further, she “calls readers into poetic fellowship with the memories, the legacies, the truths of Black women in the South” in her collection (University of Alaska Press). During the presentation, Dr. Faison will focus on how she generated ideas for these poems and attendees will interact with her poetry. Books will be available for purchase directly after the event for signing by the author.

Dr. Faison is an American poet and author whose writing continues the African American literary tradition and explores the intersections of the Black experience in terms of race, culture, and identity. Dr. Faison’s poetry and creative nonfiction have been published extensively in literary outlets, such as Callaloo, Obsidian: Literature & Art in the African Diaspora, Aunt Chloe, Stonecoast Review, Artemis Journal, Prairie Schooner, West Trestle Review, The Southern Poetry Anthology, Southern Women’s Review, About Place Journal, Deep South Magazine, and others. She is the author of The Missed Education of the Negro: An Examination of the Black Segregated Experience in Southampton County, Virginia 1950–1970, Mother to Son, I Am Woman, Love Poems, and the trilogy collection 28 Days of Poetry Celebrating Black History. A Tom Howard Poetry Prize recipient and Pushcart nominee, Dr. Faison has also been awarded fellowships from Furious Flower Poetry Center, Virginia Humanities, Association of Writers & Writing Programs, and the Hudson Valley Writers Center (University of Alaska Press).

This event is free and open to the NOVA community. Any aspiring writers and poets, historians of African American history, and lovers of words, language, and poetry won’t want to miss this amazing presentation.