When Adrian Matejka was named poet laureate of Indiana in January — the first African-American to be selected for such an honor — he offered a basic thought about his art form’s significance today.
“We need poetry to remind us of the beauty that still surrounds us despite all of the seemingly unending anger and strife,” said the German native who grew up in Indianapolis and California.
The 46-year-old writer and Indiana University instructor will speak and read from his works and also take questions at 6:30 p.m. Monday in the Red Room of the Bartholomew County Public Library, 536 Fifth St. in Columbus. Viewpoint Books will have a selection of his books for sale.
He also will be featured at 7 p.m. April 26 at Hotel Indigo in Columbus at a fundraiser for the local Granny Connection and the African American Fund. Space is limited there to about 60 ticket holders, according to organizers.
The month of April, after all, is national Poetry Month.
Matejka is a graduate of Indiana University and the Master’s of Fiwne Arts program at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. He is the author of “Mixology,” a winner of the 2008 National Poetry Series. The work also was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literature.
His third collection, “The Big Smoke” (Penguin, 2013) focuses on Jack Johnson, the first African-American heavyweight champion of the world. The book was awarded the 2014 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award and was also a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize in poetry.
The writer is a huge boxing fan who grew up seeking cool people to emulate.
“I was always casting about for role models as a kid and ‘Star Trek’ was always available via (TV) reruns and also full of possibilities,” he said in a Rumpus Poetry Book Club interview last year. “I wanted to be like Spock because he was unflappable. I wanted to be like Kirk because he had magnetism and the ladies loved him.
“Bones was a grouch, but he was sympathetic. The show … had characters who embodied different psychic or emotional positions and that allowed me to see a great range of things.”
Penguin published his most recent book, “Map to the Stars,” in 2017.
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Who: Indiana Poet Laureate Adrian Matejka, speaking and reading from his works.
When: 6:30 p.m. Monday in the Red Room of the Bartholomew County Public Library, 536 Fifth St. in Columbus. And at 7 p.m. April 26 at Hotel Indigo, 400 Brown St. in Columbus.
Admission: The library event is free. Tickets for the Hotel Indigo event are limited to about 60 people, and are $10 and $20, available at grannyconnection.org or at Viewpoint Books in downtown Columbus.
Information: mybcpl.org or grannyconnection.org.
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