CWU To Host Reading By Poet Laureate Of Maryland

March 28, 2005

Contact: Alison Barbour (509-963-1546/fax 509-963-1561/e-mail: barboura@cwu.edu)

ELLENSBURG, Wash. - The poet laureate of Maryland, Michael Collier will present a reading of his works on Wednesday, April 6, at 7:30 p.m. in the Central Washington University Grupe Center. The free, public event, to be followed by a book signing, is sponsored by the CWU English department as part of its "Visiting Writers Series" and in celebration of National Poetry Month.

Collier was installed poet laureate of Maryland by Gov. Parris Glendening in 2001, at which point the governor called Collier "a Maryland treasure."

A former Guggenheim Foundation fellow and former director of poetry programs at the Folger Shakespeare Library, he joined the University of Maryland faculty in 1985, and now co-directs the university's creative writing program.

Collier's poems have appeared in "The New Republic," "The New Yorker" magazine, "American Poetry Review" and many other magazines and periodicals. He has published four poetry collections, edited three anthologies and writes a monthly poetry column for the "Baltimore Sun" newspaper.

His most recent book, the 2000 work "The Ledge," was nominated for the National Book Critics' Circle Award for Poetry and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize.

A native Phoenix, Collier, 51, received his master of fine arts degree from the University of Arizona in 1979.

For further information about his poetry reading, or for persons of disability to arrange for reasonable accommodation, call (509) 963-1546, or (for the hearing impaired) TDD (509) 963-2143.