EAST LANSING, Mich. (WILX) - Award-winning poet and East Lansing native Leila Chatti returned home for a reunion and poetry reading.

Chatti says her journey to becoming a writer wouldn’t have been possible without her time in East Lansing.

She credits her high school English teacher at East Lansing High School and a professor at Michigan State University for playing pivotal roles in her development

Chatti says that they were a big help for her newest book, ‘Wilderness Before Something Sublime.’

Her poetry has appeared in The New York Times Magazine , The Nation , The Atlantic , and other major publications.

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