BENTON TOWNSHIP — Award-winning Chicago Poet, Daniel Borzutzky will give a presentation at Lake Michigan College’s Benton Harbor Campus from 2 to 3 p.m. Wednesday in the Blue Lecture Hall.

The presentation is titled “Investigative Poetics: Poetry and Translation from Chicago to Chile.” Borzutzky won the National Book Award for Poetry in 2016 for his collection, “The Performance of Becoming Human,” which draws connections between the U.S. and Latin America, touching on issues of immigration, political violence and economic disparity. 

Borzutzky is an assistant professor in the English and Latin American and Latino studies departments at the University of Illinois at Chicago. He is a poet and translator from Spanish. His poetry collections include “Lake Michigan,” a finalist for the 2019 Griffin International Poetry Prize, and “The Performance of Becoming Human,” winner of the 2016 National Book Award.

His other books include “In the Murmurs of the Rotten Carcass Economy,” “Memories of my Overdevelopment” and “The Book of Interfering Bodies.” His translation of Galo Ghigliotto’s “Valdivia” received the 2017 ALTA National Translation Award. He has translated books by other Chilean poets, including Raúl Zurita and Jaime Luis Huenún. His work has been supported by the NEA, the Illinois Arts Council and the PEN AMERICA Foundation.

Borzutzky’s appearance is part of the “Why Writers Write” Professional Writers Speaking Series from The Writing Center at Lake Michigan College.

For more information, contact EMortenson@lakemichigancollege.edu.