UPDATE: March 28
Because of the campus power outage, this event will NOT be held tonight. Cal U apologizes for the inconvenience.
Evening of Poet Laureates
7 p.m. March 28
Eberly Hall, Room 110
Two poet laureates with ties to Cal U will read from their work at an “Evening of Poet Laureates,” part of the Visiting Writers Series sponsored by the California University Department of English and the College of Liberal Arts.
Joseph Bathanti
Poet laureate of North Carolina
Former Cal U student Joseph Bathanti, who was
installed as North Carolina’s poet laureate in September, is the author of six
books of poetry, two novels and a short story collection.
A Pittsburgh native, he is professor of creative writing at Appalachian State University, where he also is director of Writing in the Field and a writer-in-residence in the university’s Watauga Global Community.
Devoted to social justice, Bathanti first went to North Carolina to serve in the VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) program. He has taught writing workshops in prisons for 35 years and, as poet laureate, works with veterans to share their stories through poetry.
Bathanti’s books of poetry include:
- This Metal (St. Andrews College Press, 1996, and Press 53, 2012)
- Restoring Sacred Art (Star Cloud Press, 2010)
- Land of Amnesia (Press 53, 2009)
- Anson County (Williams & Simpson, 1989, and Parkway Publishers, 2005)
- The Feast of All Saints (Nightshade press, 1994)
- Communion Partners (Briarpatch Press, 1986).
He also has published two novels, Coventry (Novello Festival Press, 2006) and East Liberty (Banks Channel Books, 2001), as well as a book of short stories, The High Heart (Eastern Washington University Press, 2007).
Ryan Sittler
Former poet laureate of Berks County, Pa.
Ryan Sittler,
poet laureate of Berks County from 2002-2008, is an assistant professor
and instructional technology/information literacy librarian at Cal U’s Manderino
Library.
He is also an adjunct faculty member for Clarion University's Department of Library Science and a doctoral candidate at IUP, where he is working toward a Ph.D. in communications media and instructional technology.
A videogame designer as well as a poet, Sittler is the lead designer of A Planet in Peril: Plagiarism, a Web-based educational game that won the 2010 Caspian Learning Serious Games Challenge.
Sittler has co-edited, with Dr. Doug Cook, two books for the Association of College and Research Libraries:
- Practical Pedagogy for Library Instructors: 17 Innovative Strategies to Improve Student Learning I (2008)
- The Library Instruction Cookbook (2009).
Event details
An“Evening of Poet Laureates” is free, and the public may attend. The event begins at 7 p.m. March 28 in Eberly Hall, Room 110.
A book signing and light refreshments will be offered after the reading.
Cal U is easy to reach via major highways and Toll Route 43. Directions to Cal U.
Visitor parking is available in the Vulcan Garage, off Third Street near the campus entrance.