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Poet Rajiv Mohabir in U of A as Walton Visiting Writer in Translation
The Walton series brings prominent authors, poets, and translators to the University of Arkansas each year to share their work.
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Staff Reporter - Thu, 16, Oct 2025
- 00:11 EDT
- 13
Rajiv Mohabir / University of Arkansas
The University of Arkansas will host Rajiv Mohabir, acclaimed poet, translator, and memoirist, as the 2025-26 Walton Visiting Writer in Translation. Mohabir will give a public reading at 6 p.m. on Oct. 16, in the Walker Room of the Fayetteville Public Library.
The reading, part of the library’s True Lit literary festival, will be followed by a book signing and a Q&A session. Admission is free.
In a press release, the University of Arkansas said the Program in Creative Writing and Translation in the Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences is proud to welcome Mohabir as its 2025-26 Walton Visiting Writer in Translation.
Mohabir, an Indo-Caribbean American author, has published five poetry collections, including The Taxidermist's Cut, Cowherd's Son, Cutlish, Whale Aria, and his upcoming book Seabeast. He has also written the hybrid memoir Antiman and the translation I Even Regret Night.
Over the years, Mohabir has received numerous honors for his work. He won the 2015 Kundiman Prize and a PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant the same year. He has been a finalist for the Lambda Literary Awards twice and was a finalist for both the 2022 PEN Open Book Award and the 2021 National Book Critics Circle Award for Poetry. Additionally, he was longlisted for the PEN/Voelcker Award in Poetry.
In addition to his major works, Mohabir received the inaugural Ghostbird Press Chapbook Prize for Acoustic Trauma and has published three multilingual chapbooks: Thunder in the Courtyard: Kajari Poems, A Veil You’ll Cast Aside, and the paired works na mash me bone and na bad-eye me. In 2021, he collaborated with New Zealand-based poet Rushi Vyas on Between Us, Not Half a Saint. His contributions to literature were further recognized in 2022 with a Massachusetts Cultural Council fellowship.
Mohabir holds an M.F.A. in poetry and translation from Queens College, CUNY, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Hawaiʻi. He is currently a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder.
The Walton Visiting Writers series brings prominent authors, poets, and translators to the University of Arkansas each year to share their work with the public and mentor graduate students in the M.F.A. program. Past guests include Jane Hirshfield, Robin Becker, Idra Novey, Brandon Hobson, Kate Briggs, Rachel Mennies, and Kelli Jo Ford.
The Fayetteville event is made possible through the support of the Program in Creative Writing and Translation, Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences, Department of English, Walton Family Foundation, and the Fayetteville Public Library.
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