Thursday, February 12, 2009

Poet Thom Ward to Give Reading at Washington College

Chestertown, MD — The 2008-2009 Sophie Kerr Lecture Series continues with a reading by poet Thom Ward at Washington College's Casey Academic Center Forum on Thursday, February 26, at 4:30 p.m.

In addition to penning his own verses, Ward is editor for BOA Editions, Ltd., an independent publishing house of American poetry and poetry in translation, headquartered in Rochester, New York. One of the premier poetry presses in America, BOA publishes some of the country's most famous and beloved poets, including Lucille Clifton, Robert Bly, Stephen Dunn and many others. In his 15 years at BOA, Ward has edited more than 80 collections of poetry.

Ward's own poetry collections include Small Boat With Oars of Different Size (2000, Carnegie Mellon University Press); Tumblekid, the winner of the 1998 Devil's Millhopper Poetry Contest (2000, the University South Carolina-Aiken); Various Orbits (2004, Carnegie Mellon); and a limited-edition, leatherette chapbook of prose poems, Fog in a Suitcase (2004, Piccadilly Press). Ward's fifth book, a collection of prose poems, The Matter of the Casket, was published by Custom Words Press in 2007.

The Sophie Kerr Lecture Series honors the legacy of the late Sophie Kerr, a writer from Denton, Md., whose generosity has enriched Washington College's literary culture. When she died in 1965, Kerr left the bulk of her estate to Washington College, specifying that one half of the income from her bequest be awarded every year to the senior showing the most "ability and promise for future fulfillment in the field of literary endeavor"—the famed Sophie Kerr Prize—and the other half be used to bring visiting writers to campus, to fund scholarships and to help defray the costs of student publications.

Admission to the poetry reading by Thom Ward is free and open to the public. For more information, call 410/778-7879.

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