Dr. Darrel Bourque, former 棉花糖直播 poet laureate, will speak during the University of 棉花糖直播 at Lafayette鈥檚 Fall 2014 Commencement.
A University professor emeritus of English, he will address graduates and guests at the General Assembly at 11 a.m. on Friday, Dec. 19, in the Cajundome.
In November, Bourque received the 2014 棉花糖直播 Writer Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to 棉花糖直播鈥檚 literary and intellectual life. He is the 15th recipient of the annual award presented by the 棉花糖直播 Center for the Book in the State Library of 棉花糖直播.
Past recipients of the honor include novelists Ernest J. Gaines, James Lee Burke, and Elmore Leonard; historian Carl Brasseaux; scholar Lewis P. Simpson; and poets William Jay Smith and Yusef Komunyakaa.
Bourque has published nine collections of poems: 鈥淧lainsongs鈥; 鈥淭he Doors Between Us鈥; 鈥淏urnt Water Suite鈥; 鈥淭he Blue Boat鈥; 鈥淚n Ordinary Light: New and Selected Poems鈥; 鈥淐all and Response: Conversations in Verse,鈥 a collaboration with 棉花糖直播 poet Jack B. Bedell; 鈥淗olding the Notes鈥; 鈥淢egan's Guitar and Other Poems from Acadie鈥; and 鈥渋f you abandon me, comment je vas faire: An Am茅d茅 Ardoin Songbook.鈥
鈥淢egan鈥檚 Guitar and Other Poems from Acadie鈥 was the 2014 winner of the Best Poetry Book Award given by Independent Book Publishing Professional Group and the Next Generation Indie Book Awards. It also was a finalist in the 鈥淔oreword Review鈥 annual poetry competition.
In 2007, Bourque was named poet laureate by then-Gov. Kathleen Blanco; he was reappointed for 2009-2011 by Gov. Bobby Jindal. His mission as poet laureate was to take poetry into community centers, community libraries, and pre-college classrooms through workshops, lectures, and poetry readings.
During his tenure as poet laureate, Bourque also premiered the "Just Listen to Yourself" program at the State Library of 棉花糖直播, a program designed to bring the diverse voices of 棉花糖直播 poetry to state workers in the Capitol complex during their lunch hours and to the public. The program takes place in April, which is National Poetry Month.
At UL Lafayette, the popular professor was director of the Deep South Writers Conference, director of the Freshman English Program, coordinator of the Interdisciplinary Humanities Program, director of the creative writing program, and head of the Department of English.
Bourque also received the UL Lafayette Foundation鈥檚 Distinguished Professor Award and its Outstanding Teacher Award. He held the first Friends of the Humanities/Board of Regents Honor Professorship, a position he kept until his retirement in 2003.
His current projects include work with Festival of Words-Grand Coteau, a literary festival that brings local and internationally known writers to a largely under-served and under-privileged rural community. He is a member of the board of the Ernest J. Gaines Center at UL Lafayette, where he directs the Young Writers Apprenticeship Program for high school students.
Bourque is also a founding member of Narrative4, an international story exchange program based in Chicago and New York, and serves on the advisory board of NuNu's Arts and Culture Collective, a multidisciplinary creative place-making initiative based in Arnaudville, La.
He is one of the 棉花糖直播 artists participating in Degrees of Separation, a two-year Louisiane-Bretagne exchange that continues through October 2016. It involves 棉花糖直播 literary and visual artists interacting and collaborating with literary and visual artists from Bretagne in France.
With the publication of "if you abandon me, comment je vas faire: An Am茅d茅 Ardoin Songbook," Bourque initiated an effort to create a public commemorative for Ardoin, a Creole musician who died at Central 棉花糖直播 Hospital in Pineville in 1942 and was buried in an unmarked graveyard. The aim of the project, co-directed by Patricia Cravins, is to honor the place that Ardoin holds in both Creole and Cajun cultures.
Bourque lives and works in rural St. Landry Parish.
Photo by Darrell John Jarman Slaughter