Alaskan Poet To Present Reading At CWU

May 2, 2005

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

ELLENSBURG, Wash. - Alaskan poet Olena Kalytiak Davis will present selected works during a free, public poetry reading, sponsored by the Central Washington University English department, Monday, May 9, at 7 p.m., in the Samuelson Union Building Owhi Room.

Davis recently published her second volume of poems, "Shattered Sonnets Love Cards and Other Off- and Back- Handed Importunities." It follows the critically acclaimed collection "And Her Soul Out of Nothing," the 1997 Brittingham Prize for poetry, awarded annually to the best book-length manuscript of original poetry by the University of Wisconsin-Madison English department.

Davis, who lives and writes in Anchorage, Alaska, has been included in three best American poetry anthologies, Rona Jaffee Foundation writers award, Pushcart Prize and a 2004 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship.

For more information about her 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.