2007-08 Contemporary Writers Series at Pitt Continues With Two Evening Readings and an Afternoon Panel Discussion

PITTSBURGH-Four poets will be featured in two evening poetry readings and an afternoon panel discussion as part of the Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series at the University of Pittsburgh Oct. 23 and 24. Poets Jan Freeman and Allison Joseph will give a poetry reading Oct. 23 and poets April Ossmann and Martha Rhodes will read Oct. 24; both readings are at 8:30 p.m. in the Frick Fine Arts Auditorium, 650 Schenley Dr., Oakland.

All four writers will participate in a panel discussion, titled "Publishing Poets," at 2 p.m. Oct. 24 in Room 501, Cathedral of Learning, 4200 Fifth Ave.

Freeman is the author of "Simon Says" (Paris Press, 2000), which was nominated for a National Book Critics Circle Award. Since 1987, she has been a contributing editor of The American Poetry Review; she was also the recipient of the 1993 Cleveland State Poetry Center Award. Her work appeared in several publications, including "The American Poetry Review," "The Oxford Companion to Women Writers in the U.S., "The Massachusetts Review," and "Prairie Schooner." She founded Paris Press, a nonprofit independent press based in Ashfield, Mass., in 1995.

Joseph has published five books of poetry: "What Keeps Us Here" (Ampersand, 1992), "Soul Train" (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 1997), "In Every Seam" (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1997), "Imitation of Life" (Carnegie Mellon University Press, 2003), and "Worldly Pleasures" (Word Press, 2004). Her honors include the John C. Zacharis First Book Prize and the Judge Williams Holmes Cook Endowed Professorship. She also has won fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, Sewanee Writers' Conference, and Illinois Arts Council. She is the head of Southern Illinois University's master's program in creative writing.

Ossmann's first collection of poems, "Anxious Music," was just published by Four Way Books in October 2007. Her poetry also has been published in numerous journals, including "Prairie Schooner," "The Spoon River Poetry Review," "Harvard Review," and "Seneca Review." She has received several awards for her poetry, including Prairie Schooner Readers Choice Award in the summer of 2000. Ossmann has taught creative writing and literature courses at Lebanon College and the University of Maine at Farmington, and is the executive director of Alice James Books, a poetry press founded in 1973.

Rhodes is the author of three collections of poetry: "Mother Quiet" (Zoo Press, 2004), Perfect Disappearance (New Issues Poetry & Prose, 2000), and "At the Gate" (Provincetown Arts, 2000). She is director and founding editor of Four Way Books, a nonprofit literary press based in New York City that she and three partners founded in 1993. Rhodes publishes several collections a year out of her loft in Tribeca, N.Y., and hosts several poetry readings in her area. She teaches at New School University and at the Master of Fine Arts Program at Warren Wilson College.

Pitt's Book Center, Women's Studies Program, and the University of Pittsburgh Press cosponsor the Pittsburgh Contemporary Writers Series, which runs through April 2, 2008. All events in the writers series are free and open to the public.

###

10/18/07/tmw