Award-winning poet Sidney Wade to present poetry reading

Feb. 18, 2019 | English |

The Harding University English department will host award-winning poet Sidney Wade as part of the Visiting Writers Series at 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 21 in Cone Chapel. Admission is free.

Wade is the author of six volumes of poetry, including “Stroke,” “Empty Sleeves” and “Straits & Narrows.” Her most recent work, “Bird Book,” has received rave reviews. Wade’s publisher, Atelier26, describes “Bird Book” as “a universal song of praise to the mysteries and intricacies of the animal world that surrounds us, and a wide-awake hymn, by a master lyricist, to the delights and surprises of our common language.”

Poet Randall Mann describes Wade as “both the supreme heir to Wallace Stevens and one of the most original poets in our language.”

Wade received a Ph.D. in English from the University of Houston, and has served as president of the Association of Writers and Writing Programs. A Fulbright scholar and translator of Turkish poetry, she is professor emerita at the University of Florida. A summer and winter resident of Rangeley since 1963, she also writes of the people and places of western Maine.

The Visiting Writer Series, which is funded in part by the Wharton Endowment for Creative Writing, is designed to enrich the local community and communicate the power of language to transform lives by bringing in writers of national and international reputation. The series has been hosted by the University’s English department for over 20 years, and during that time has brought Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning writers to Searcy. In addition to public readings while on campus, visiting writers work directly with Harding students in workshops and one-on-one meetings to help them become better writers. Past guests include Naomi Shihab Nye, Sonia Nazario, and Arkansas poet Miller Williams.

For more information about the English department, visit harding.edu/English or call 501-279-4421. To learn more about special events and services offered by the University, visit harding.edu/community .