Reading, Workshop to Feature Oregon Poet

Paulann Petersen, the sixth and current poet laureate of Oregon, will read selections of her work Thursday, Jan. 24, at 7 p.m. in Adams Center, room 216. The poetry reading is free and open to the public. For more information, please call Paul Willis at (805) 565-7174 or willis@westmont.edu.

Mandi De Vos ’13, editor of the Phoenix, Westmont’s student literary magazine, will read her poetry to begin the event.

Petersen, a resident of Portland, has written several books of poetry, including “The Wild Awake,” “Kindle” and “The Voluptuary.” Her most recent publication, “Shimmer and Drone,” is a chapbook of poems about India.

“Paulann Petersen is an exceedingly wise and gracious woman whose poetry, line by line, keeps dropping us into deeper places,” says Paul Willis, Westmont English professor and Santa Barbara poet laureate.

Petersen is a former Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. She earned the Oregon Literary Arts’ 2006 Holbrook Award and serves on the board for Friends of William Stafford. She has taught numerous poetry workshops for colleges, libraries and writers’ conferences.

Petersen will lead a poetry workshop for Westmont students, faculty and staff of all levels of ability on Friday, Jan. 25, from 4-6 p.m. in Kerr Student Center, room 218.