When it comes to sources of poetic inspiration, there is no place like home.

Today, in a symposium at the University Chapel, six award-winning African-American poets will discuss personal and artistic connections to their home – the South.

“[There is] a long tradition of ambivalence about the South in black literature,” said Barbara McCaskill, a University English professor and the symposium’s organizer. “Ultimately, for better or worse, the South is our home.”

Titled “Black Poets Lean South,” the symposium features poets who are all published in an anthology of the same name.

The book has been integrated into at least seven undergraduate English classes, McCaskill said.

According to her, the event is a chance to nurture creativity in the students and community members who attend.

“It’s very exciting to meet the people you read about and to talk to them about their work,” McCaskill said. “We want the writers to share with students and community members what inspires them about their work.”

McCaskill was inspired to create the event after a similar but smaller symposium was successful last year.

This year, she teamed up with The Cave Canem Foundation, an organization dedicated to nurturing black poetry.

In conjunction with the foundation, McCaskill invited poets that “represent a range of generations.”

“There’s something for everyone,” she said. “We have very mature, experienced writers, we have writers who are just emerging.”

One of those emerging poets happens to be one of the University’s own.

Sean Hill, who graduated from the University with an English degree, will be discussing his book of poetry, “Blood Ties and Brown Liquor.”

“I didn’t start writing poetry until late in my freshman year at UGA but once I started, it became a compulsion, a passion, and I had to figure out a way to continue doing it,” he said.

Inspired by his hometown of Milledgeville, Hill began to write about his explorations into its history.

“Those poems drew me into wanting to find out more about the Milledgeville that existed before my birth, before my memory,” he said. “I’m hoping to share this record of my explorations with others. I want to contribute to my community in my own way.”

In addition to Hill, the symposium’s line up includes the founders of Cave Canem, Toi Derricotte and Cornelius Eady, and the anthology’s editor, Nikky Finney.

Throughout the day, poets will read in 30-minute sessions and take questions from the audience. At the end, there will be a panel discussion with all the poets, which will be aired on National Public Radio’s “New Letters on the Air.”