POET GREGORY ORR TO READ AT THE U OF A

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Poet Gregory Orr will read in Giffels Auditorium in Old Main on the University of Arkansas campus at 8 p.m on Monday, April 15. This event, sponsored by the University's Programs in Creative Writing and Translation and funded by the Walton Foundation, is free and open to the public.

Gregory Orr is the author of eight collections of poetry, including "The Caged Owl: New and Selected Poems" which was recently published by Copper Canyon Press. His sixth collection, "City of Salt" (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995), was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Poetry Prize.

In addition to his volumes of poetry, Orr has written several other books, two of which will be released later this year. His book on the cultural and psychological role of lyric poetry, "Three Strange Angels: How Lyric Poetry Transforms Trauma," will be published by the University of Georgia Press, and a memoir of his childhood, "The Blessing," will be published by Council Oak Books. Orr is also the author of "Stanley Kunitz: An Introduction to the Poetry" (Columbia University Press, 1985) and "Richer Entanglements" (University of Michigan Poets on Poetry Series, 1993) and co-editor with Ellen Bryant Voigt of "Poets Teaching Poets: Self and the World" (University of Michigan Press, 1997).

Since 1975, Orr has taught at the University of Virginia where he also serves as poetry editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review. He is also an editor and columnist for the magazine, Sacred Bearings: A Journal on Violence and Spiritual Life. He has held poetry fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Guggenheim Foundation and has been a Rockefeller Fellow at the Institute for Culture and Violence. He is married to the painter, Trisha Orr, and has lectured extensively on poetry and art at the National Gallery of Art Summer Institute as well as at other art institutions and museums.

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Elizabeth Bryer, publicity director of the Spring 2002 Reading Series, English Department, Fulbright College, (479)575-4301, ebryer@uark.edu