Writing Faculty Jamaica Baldwin & Raul Palma Read Nov. 8

By Eleanor Henderson, October 25, 2023

Poster for Jamaica Baldwin and Raul Palma Reading

Please join the Department of Writing in celebrating the publication of two recent faculty books: the debut poetry collection Bone Language (YesYes Books) by Assistant Professor Jamaica Baldwin, and the debut novel A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens (Dutton) by Associate Professor Raul Palma, who also serves as Associate Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences. They will read from and discuss their work on Wednesday, November 8 from 5 to 6 PM in Klingenstein Lounge.

Poet Kwame Dawes said of Bone Language, "Baldwin’s magic-flecked collection contains a lament for the inadequacy of dreams in our world. Yet hope is found in her beautiful writing and deeply sophisticated thinking. Her language is spare and her many voices communicate with an arresting strangeness that is at once elegant and disquieting. This is a fine, skilled debut collection by a fully-formed and extremely important poet."

And Cornell professor and novelist Ernesto Quiñonez said of A Haunting in Hialeah Gardens, “In this Faustian hell of a debut, the prose ripples with a mythical rhythm. Raul Palma has taken a splash of Oscar Hijuelos’ musical cadence, a dash of Alejo Carpentier’s magic realism, and along with his own considerable power to depict Miami lore, its humanism, its African rituals, its mysterious legends, its strong coffee—the end result is this suspenseful, stylistic, and sensory classic.”      

This event is free and open to the public. Buffalo Street Books will be selling books.

Individuals with disabilities requiring accommodations should contact Eleanor Henderson at ehenderson@ithaca.edu or 607-793-4012. We ask that requests for accommodations be made as soon as possible.