Reginald Dwayne Betts, poet and memoir writer, will be in the Speakers’ Corner on Thursday evening, March 30, at 7 pm as a 2017 Villanova University Literary Festival author. Betts’ memoir, A Question of Freedom:  A Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison (2009), received the 2010 NAACP Image Award for non-fiction. He also wrote two books of poetry, Shahid Reads His Own Palm (2010) and Bastards of the Reagan Era (2015). President Obama appointed Betts to the Coordinating Council of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in 2012. Betts is a graduate of Prince George’s Community College, the University of Maryland, Warren Wilson College’s MFA Program, and Yale Law School.

Dig Deeper:

“In ‘Bastards of the Reagan Era’ a Poet Says His Generation Was ‘Just Lost.’  “   A 2015 interview on NPR

Poetry  Foundation  Provides a biography and some of Betts’ poems

Betts, Reginald Dwayne. Bastards of the Reagan Era (2015)

Cave Canem (Organization). Gathering Ground: A Reader Celebrating Cave Canem’s First Decade. (c.2009) Includes some of Betts’ poems

Vella, Vinny. “Former convict graduates from Yale Law School.” Boston Globe.