Writers Mara Ioannides and John Zheng to Give Readings for Delta Symposium XXIX

04/03/2024

JONESBORO - In conjunction with Delta Symposium XXIX: Talking About the Weather, the English, Philosophy and World Languages Department welcomes author Mara Cohen Ioannides and writer and poet John Zheng to Arkansas State University.

They will give readings at 7 p.m. Friday, April 5, in the main gallery of Bradbury Art Museum, located within Fowler Center at 201 Olympic Drive. Admission is free.

Ioannides is the author of "Jews of Missouri: An Ornament to Israel," "Creating Community: The Jews of Springfield, Missouri," and "Jewish Reform Movement in the US: The Evolution of the Non-Liturgical Parts of the Central Conference of American Rabbis Haggadah." In addition to these scholarly texts, she has also written two novels, "A Shout in the Sunshine" and "We are in Exile/Estamos en Galut," in addition to many scholarly journal articles and chapters. As she states on her Facebook author's page, "I write fiction and nonfiction. All my work is about Judaism."

She is emeritus faculty at Missouri State University, president of the Midwest Jewish Studies Association, president of the Ozarks Studies Association, and vice president of the Greene County, Mo., Historical Society. Her work has received many awards, including 2008 Skipping Stones Honor Award for "A Shout in the Sunshine" and the chapter "Exploring Midwestern v. Great Plains Regional Variation By Way of the Jewish Immigrant Experience," in "The Interior Borderlands: Regional Identity in the Midwest and Great Plains," edited by Jon Lauck, which received the 2020 Best General History Award from the Midwest Independent Publishers Association.

Zheng is the award-winning author of numerous books such as "The Dog Years of Reeducation, A Way of Looking," which won the Gerald Cable Book Award, "Enforced Rustication in the Chinese Cultural Revolution," and "The Landscape of Mind." He is also editor of seven scholarly books including "Conversations with Dana Gioia," "African American Haiku," "The Other World of Richard Wright," and "Sonia Sanchez's Poetic Spirit through Haik."

A recipient of two poetry fellowships from the Mississippi Arts Commission, Zheng is also the author of three haiku e-chapbooks: "Delta Sun," "Delta Notes," and "Just Looking: Haiku Sequences about the Mississippi Delta." He teaches at Mississippi Valley State University, and edits Valley Voices: A Literary Review and the Journal of Ethnic American Literature.

Delta Symposium XXIX is sponsored by the Department of English, Philosophy, and World Languages. For further information, contact the department at (870) 972-3043 or visit the symposium website: AState.edu/delta-symposium.