Please join us for our next Speaker at the Center talk with

Len Lawson, Poet and Author of New Names for Stars, accompanied by Miho Kinnas and Kathleen Nalley 

Len Lawson, the author of New Names for Stars, winner of the Lit Fox Award (Lit Fox Books, 2026), will be joined by Japanese poet Miho Kinnas and author Kathleen Nalley in reading selections from his newest release.

Tuesday, June 16th at 6:00 PM

Len Lawson has won the Jasper Project Artist of the Year Award in Literary Arts, the inaugural North Carolina Poetry Society Susan Laughter Meyers Fellowship in Poetry, the SC Academy of Authors Carrie McCrary Nickens Fellowship in Poetry, and an SC Humanities Governor’s Award for Fresh Voices in the Humanities. Born and living in South Carolina, he is Director of African American Studies and Assistant Professor of English at Newberry College.

Kathleen Nalley is the author of Gutterflower, winner of the Bryant-Lisembee Editor’s Prize (Red Paint Hill Press, 2017), and the chapbooks Nesting Doll, winner of the South Carolina Poetry Initiative Prize (Stepping Stones Press, 2013), and American Sycamore (Finishing Line Press, 2015). Her poetry and book reviews have appeared in New Flash Fiction Review, Slipstream, Limp Wrist, Southern Humanities Review, The Bitter Southerner, StorySouth, and elsewhere, and her poetry has been anthologized in several collections. She teaches at Clemson University. Kathleen most recently authored DISSENT (Small Harbor Publishing, 2025) with Gabrielle Brant Freeman.

Miho Kinnas is a Japanese poet and translator living in Hilton Head Island, SC. She is the author of three poetry collections. Her poems appeared in various journals and anthologies, including Asian Literary Journal, Tokyo Poetry, and Best American Poetry.  Pas de Deux for the Time Being: an experiment in collaboration, in collaboration with Richard Garcia, will be published by Finishing Line Press in September 2026. Her latest book is Waiting for Sunset to Bury Red Camellias (Free Verse Press, 2023).

Contact

For more information, please contact McCabe Rentz, SC Center for the Book Coordinator, at 803-734-4816 or mrentz@statelibrary.sc.gov.

Location & Parking

The event is held at the South Carolina State Library, 1500 Senate Street, Columbia, SC 29201. On-street metered parking is available. Enter between the two lions.

Accessibility

FM Auditory Assistance, large print materials, and other accessibility accommodations are available upon request. Please contact the program organizer in advance if you need a reasonable accommodation to participate.