Idaho State University English/philosophy department to host poetry, creative fiction reading Oct. 19

Idaho State University's Department of English and Philosophy will host a reading of poetry and creative nonfiction at 3:30 on Friday, Oct. 19, at the Bengal Cafe in the Pond Student Union.

Poet Michael Sowder and essayist Jennifer Sinor of the creative writing faculty at Utah State University will read from their work. Admission is free and open to the public.

Sowder is a poet, writer and professor at Utah State University. His new book of poetry, "House Under the Moon," has just been published by Truman State University Press. His first poetry collection, "The Empty Boat," was chosen by Diane Wakoski from more than 600 manuscripts to win the 2004 T.S. Eliot Award, and his chapbook, "A Calendar of Crows," won the New Michigan Press Award. "Whitman's Ecstatic Union," his study of Walt Whitman's poetry, was published by Routledge Press.  Sowder's poetry and nonfiction explore themes of wilderness, fatherhood, Buddhism and poetics.  A new essay, "Teaching Poetry / Teaching Mindfulness" is forthcoming in the December issue of the Buddhist magazine, Shambhala Sun.

Sinor is a creative nonfiction writer whose essays have appeared in the American Scholar, Ecotone, Fourth Genre, and elsewhere. Her work was recently anthologized in both the Norton Reader and Utne, as well as nominated for a Pushcart Prize. The author of "The Extraordinary Work of Ordinary Writing," a book that blends memoir and research, Sinor teaches creative writing at Utah State University where she is an associate professor of English.

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