CWU Professor's Poetry To Be Read During National Poetry Month

April 27, 2004

Contact: Diane Huckabay (509-933-4051)

ELLENSBURG, Wash.-- This month marks the 8th annual National Poetry Month (NPM). Inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, the event brings together publishers, booksellers, literary organizations, libraries, schools and poets to celebrate poetry and its place in American culture.

A local NPM celebration will be held Thursday, April 29, from 4 to 5 p.m., when local poet and CWU English professor Joseph Powell reads from among his 200 published poems at the Kittitas Library, at 2nd and Pierce Street.

Powell, an Ellensburg native, incorporates names and places that residents, particularly of the Kittitas Valley, can relate to. His poetry has a feeling of familiarity, and it is evident that he chooses topics that he feels strongly about.

His complete works include "Counting the Change," published in 1986; "Winter Insomnia," 1993; and "Getting Here," 1997, for which he was honored by the Quarterly Review of Literature as one of only five winners in the periodical's poetry book contest.

In addition, Powell has penned three chat books: "Aegean Dialogue," "A Ring in the Air" and "The Greatest Hits." He has been teaching at Central for more than 20 years.

For more information about Powell's poetry reading at the Kittitas Library, call (509) 968-0226.