Fall Arts Celebration features award-winning poets

Hear two acclaimed American poets read from their works at “An Evening of Poetry and Conversation with Mark Doty and Dorianne Laux” — a part of Grand Valley State University’s annual Fall Arts Celebration.

Thursday, October 16, at 7 p.m.
L.V. Eberhard Center, 2nd Floor
Robert C. Pew Grand Rapids Campus
Readings followed by book signing and reception

As the author of eight books of poetry, Mark Doty is the only American poet to have won Great Britain’s T.S. Eliot Prize. His first collection, “Turtle, Swan,” appeared in 1987 followed by his 1993 collection titled, “My Alexandria,” which received both the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award. Since then he has published “Atlantis” (1995), “Sweet Machine” (1998), “Source” (2001), “School of the Arts” (2005) and “Fire to Fire: New and Selected Poems” (2008). Doty is a professor and writer-in-residence at Rutgers University.

Dorianne Laux is the author of five books of poetry, including her most recent publication, “The Book of Men.” Her fourth book of poems, “Facts about the Moon,” received the Oregon Book Award and was short-listed for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize. Laux’s work has appeared in the Best of APR, The Norton Anthology of Contemporary Poetry, and the Best of the Net. The author is currently teaching poetry in the MFA program at North Carolina State University.

“Laux and Doty, besides being fabulous writers, are friends who love to read together,” said Patricia Clark, Writing Department chair. “Laux worked as a sanatorium cook, a gas station manager and a maid, before finding her true calling as a writer. Her poems have been translated into several languages, including Afrikaans and Brazilian Portuguese. Besides being the author of eight books of poetry, Doty has also published three memoirs. He is currently working on a memoir that centers on his poetic relationship with Walt Whitman, entitled, What Is the Grass.”

Since its start in 2003, Fall Arts Celebration has featured some of the preeminent writers, poets, musicians, dancers, artists and scholars of today.

All Fall Arts Celebration events are open to the public with free admission. Seating is limited. For more information, visit www.gvsu.edu/fallarts, or call (616) 331-2185.