Centenary Poets at Arts in the Edge, March 2003

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (3/03)
Contact: David Havird, Brown Professor of English, 318-869-5085
or Lynn Stewart, Centenary News Service, 318-869-5120

4 Centenary Poets to Read at Arts in the Edge Beginning March 15; 4 Others to Read March 22 and 29

Poets from Centenary (left to right): Karen Swenson, David Havird, Ashley Havird, Jennifer Strange

SHREVEPORT, LA —Four Centenary College poets will kick off the literary part of Arts in the Edge when it opens in downtown Shreveport on Saturday, March 15.

Sponsored by the Shreveport Regional Arts Council and presented by Harrah's, Arts in the Edge will feature readings by nationally published poets and novelists and programs of music, dance, theater, film and visual art on three successive Saturday nights, March 15, 22 and 29, from 7 p.m.-midnight, on the 500 and 600 blocks of Texas Street.

Also reading their poems are two current members of the Centenary College English faculty, David Havird and Jennifer Strange. Havird, whose poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, Southwest Review and Shenandoah, became the Brown Professor of English in 2002. Strange, who graduated from Centenary College in 1999, received her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Florida, where she studied under the poet and critic William Logan. She joined the Centenary faculty in 2001.

The literary program has been curated by Ashley Mace Havird, who will introduce the participants and also read her poetry. She has taught creative writing in the University of Virginia's Division of Continuing Education as well as at Centenary College, and her widely published poems and short stories have appeared in The Southern Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, and The Texas Review. In 2002 she received a fellowship from the Louisiana Division of the Arts.

The program on March 22 will feature poet Sidney Wade, the author of four collections of poems and a professor of creative writing at the University of Florida. Her most recent book, Celestial Bodies, was published by Louisiana State University Press last year. Joining her will be Tulane University professor Josh Russell, whose novel, Yellow Jack, was published by W. W. Norton in 1999.

Marsha Recknagel, author of the 2001 memoir If Nights Could Talk from St. Martin's Press, will read on March 29. A Shreveport native, Recknagel is a writer-in-residence at Rice University in Houston. She will share the stage with Genaro Ky Ly Smith, whose fellowship from the Louisiana Division of the Arts took him to Vietnam last summer. He will read from his trilogy of novels-in-progress about his Vietnamese/African American heritage.



Centenary News Service 2911 Centenary Boulevard Post Office Box 4188 Shreveport Louisiana 71134-1188 Telephone 318 869-5120 Fax 318 841-7266 Email news@centenary.edu				FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (3/03) Contact: David Havird, Brown Professor of English, 318-869-5085 or Lynn Stewart, Centenary News Service, 318-869-5120 4 Centenary Poets to Read at Arts in the Edge Beginning March 15; 4 Others to Read March 22 and 29 *Poets from Centenary (left to right): Karen Swenson, David Havird, Ashley Havird, Jennifer Strange* SHREVEPORT, LA —Four Centenary College poets will kick off the literary part of Arts in the Edge when it opens in downtown Shreveport on Saturday, March 15. Sponsored by the Shreveport Regional Arts Council and presented by Harrah's, Arts in the Edge will feature readings by nationally published poets and novelists and programs of music, dance, theater, film and visual art on three successive Saturday nights, March 15, 22 and 29, from 7 p.m.-midnight, on the 500 and 600 blocks of Texas Street. Karen Swenson, the author of five books of poetry, will headline the opening night's literary program. Swenson, who lives in New York City, was the first Rea J. Fox Professor of Creative Arts and Letters at Centenary College in 2001. Her most recent book, A Daughter's Latitude: New and Selected Poems, was published by Copper Canyon Press in 1999. A journalist as well as poet, Swenson has published numerous articles on travel in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Slides from her travels in Southeast Asia will accompany her presentation of her poems. Also reading their poems are two current members of the Centenary College English faculty, David Havird and Jennifer Strange. Havird, whose poems have appeared in The New Yorker, Poetry, Southwest Review and Shenandoah, became the Brown Professor of English in 2002. Strange, who graduated from Centenary College in 1999, received her Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Florida, where she studied under the poet and critic William Logan. She joined the Centenary faculty in 2001. The literary program has been curated by Ashley Mace Havird, who will introduce the participants and also read her poetry. She has taught creative writing in the University of Virginia's Division of Continuing Education as well as at Centenary College, and her widely published poems and short stories have appeared in The Southern Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, and The Texas Review. In 2002 she received a fellowship from the Louisiana Division of the Arts. The program on March 22 will feature poet Sidney Wade, the author of four collections of poems and a professor of creative writing at the University of Florida. Her most recent book, Celestial Bodies, was published by Louisiana State University Press last year. Joining her will be Tulane University professor Josh Russell, whose novel, Yellow Jack, was published by W. W. Norton in 1999. Marsha Recknagel, author of the 2001 memoir If Nights Could Talk from St. Martin's Press, will read on March 29. A Shreveport native, Recknagel is a writer-in-residence at Rice University in Houston. She will share the stage with Genaro Ky Ly Smith, whose fellowship from the Louisiana Division of the Arts took him to Vietnam last summer. He will read from his trilogy of novels-in-progress about his Vietnamese/African American heritage. For more information, contact Dr. David Havird at 318-869-5085. - 30 -