College of Arts and Letters Introduces Spring Poetry Reading Series
Tue, 01/17/2012 - 02:27pm | By: Charmaine Williams Schmermund
The College of Arts and Letters at The University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast will host the Spring Poetry Reading Series, which will feature literary selections of a local poet and an open microphone session on the last Wednesday of each month during the spring semester.
The Spring Poetry Reading Series, currently scheduled for Jan. 25, Feb. 29 and March 28, will begin at 7 p.m. and be held in Room 204 of the Gulf Park campus library in Long Beach.
The Jan. 25 program will feature Dr. J. Elaine White, associate professor of English, founding director of the university's Live Oak Writing Project and co-author of “Making Your First Yeara Success” as well as an extensive collection of published articles. White is an active poet and will read selections of her poetry.
On Feb. 29, Dr. Casey Maugh, assistant professor of communication studies, will read selections of her own poetry. Her primary research focuses on intercultural rhetorics and rhetorics of security surrounding globalization and government aid organizations. Along with her teaching and research, she serves as the director of the Gulf Coast Speaking and Writing Center.
Mary Ann O'Gorman, adjunct faculty in the Department of English, will serve as the featured poet for the March 28 program. As a writer of fiction, poetry, and non-fiction, O'Gorman's work has appeared in The Bellingham Review, The Coe Review and the Double Dealer. A chapbook of her poetry, Life in This House, was published in 2008 by Finishing Line Press. Mary Ann will be reading new poems and a short excerpt from her novel-in-progress, “The Art of Being a Man.”
Refreshments will be served and the series is free and open to the public. For more information, contact the Southern Miss Gulf Coast College of Arts and Letters at 228.214.3245 or visit www.usm.edu/gulfcoast/gcartsletters.