Join us for an evocative evening with the husband-and-wife poetic team as they present Fog at the Manassas Battlefield. This isn’t just a reading—it’s a meditation on history, memory, war, and the spectral edges between past and present.

Patrick’s voice wanders the battlefield as a haunting witness; Resa’s scholarship and insight enrich the dialogue that rises from the fog. Together, their work invites you into the quiet, unsettled places we carry. Whether you come for the language, the history, or the conversation, this night promises to expand how you see the land around us—and the spirits that linger there.

Event Details

Wednesday, October 29, 2025 | 7:00 PM
Robert Russa Moton Museum
900 Griffin Boulevard, Farmville, VA
A reception and book signing will follow the reading.

About the Authors

Patrick Bizzaro is the author of a dozen books and chapbooks of poetry, two studies on Fred Chappell, a work on creative writing pedagogy, and hundreds of essays and poems. Over his career, he has secured grants from the Fulbright Commission, the U.S. Department of Education, the North Carolina Arts Council, and the National Writing Project.

Of Cherokee and Meherrin descent, Resa Crane Bizzaro earned degrees in Creative Writing, Literature, and Composition. Her work encompasses Native identity rhetorics, intergenerational PTSD, southern literature, and contemporary poetry. After teaching for more than 35 years, she now works as an independent scholar.

Their collaboration Fog at the Manassas Battlefield combines Patrick’s poems with photography and thematic reflection by Resa, weaving together witness, memory, and the persistence of place.

“Part séance, part cautionary tale, Fog at the Manassas Battlefield by Patrick Bizzaro is a deeply contemplative volume. Poem after poem, it takes on, indeed, the “fog of war” through the lens of its obsessed, near-haunted speaker who wanders the battlefield, slipping though its harrowing portals to the past, like a shade, often conflating the past with the present, the living and the dead.  Bizzaro’s extraordinary language possesses the forensic precision of a documentarian. These poems of witness showcase him at his utter best. ”

– Joseph Bathanti, North Carolina Poet Laureate 2012-2014, and author of Light at the Seam

Accessibility

This event is free and open to the public. Persons with disabilities who wish to arrange accommodations or receive materials in an alternate format may call 434.395.2391 (Voice) or 711 (TT).

Sponsors

This program is sponsored by the Department of English and Modern Languages, Cook-Cole College of Arts and Sciences, Cormier Honors College, the Office of the Provost, Longwood University Arts Council, Janet D. Greenwood Library at Longwood University, and the Robert Russa Moton Museum.