Poet, author to visit schools, read works

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Tim Seibles, poet laureate of Virginia, and Lynn Lurie, author of two novels, will visit the area next week for an outreach program sponsored by the Youngstown State University Poetry Center and Etruscan Press.

Seibles and Lurie will visit four local schools – East High School, Choffin Career and Technical Center, Youngstown Early College and Austintown Fitch High School – and conduct public readings Monday and Wednesday.

Seibles is the author of seven books of poetry, including “One Turn Around the Sun” (2017). He is a National Book Award finalist and Theodore Roethke prize winner, as well as a recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts and the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center.

Lurie, the author of two novels, including “Quick Kills” (2014), is a previous participant in the YSU outreach program and was the 2007 recipient of the Juniper Prize for fiction.

Lurie will speak to members of the girls’ leadership afterschool program at the YWCA of Warren, while both authors will address participants in a writing class for incarcerated women via Skype.

Seibles will present “Morning Where You Are: The Poetry of Tim Seibles” at 7 p.m. Monday at the Tyler History Center, 325 W. Federal St., downtown. The event, which will feature entertainment by the Youngstown Connection, a singing and dancing group composed of local high school students, is free and open to the public.

Seibles will be joined by Lurie and local poet and rapper Adrian O. Watson for a public reading at the annual ACTION Fellowship Breakfast at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday at St. Edward church on the North Side.

The visit will conclude with a reception at the DeBartolo Stadium Club, inside YSU’s Stambaugh Stadium, at noon Wednesday. Guests will include local educational and community leaders.

For information, contact Thomas Welsh at tom@etruscanpress.org or 330-792-7936.