Poet Laureate Katharine Coles, Poetry Reading @ WSU (Ogden: Oct 4)

Past Poet Laureate Presents Reading

WHO:    Carl E. Andra Memorial Collection 

WHAT:    Katharine Coles, Poetry Reading by past Utah State Poet Laureate

WHERE: Hetzel-Hoellein (Special Collections), Stewart Library WSU campus

WHEN:   Thursday, October 4• 7PM

The Carl E. Andra Memorial Collection is presenting the past Utah State Poet Laureate, Katharine Coles, in a poetry reading on Thursday, October 4, at 7:00 PM in the Hetzel-Hoellein (Special Collections) Room. This event is free and open to the public. Several of her books will be available for sale at the event and also in the WSU Bookstore.

The endowment for the Andra Collection,* completed in 2011, specified that poetry readings be offered  from time to time to draw attention to the Collection’s existence and importance to the campus and community.  It was agreed that poets of regional, state, or local importance be featured.  

This year, Katharine Coles, who is the immediate past Poet Laureate of our state, has been selected to read. Poet, novelist, and editor Katharine Coles earned a BA at the University of Washington, an MA at the University of Houston, and a PhD at the University of Utah. She is a professor of English at the University of Utah.   She is the author of many collections of poems, including “The Golden Years of the Fourth Dimension,” “A History of the Garden,” and “The One Right Touch.”  She has also published two novels:  “The Measurable World,” and “Fire Season.”  Her work often deals with the importance of nature and science in our lives 

Coles has received numerous honors for her work, including a term as Utah’s poet laureate, both a fellowship and a New Forms Project grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a PEN New Writer’s Award, an Antarctic Artists and Writers Grant from the National Science Foundation, and grants from the Utah Arts Council and the Salt Lake City Arts Council. 

At the University of Utah, Coles has directed the Creative Writing Program; co-directed the Utah Symposium in Science and Literature, with mathematician and biologist Fred Alder; and served as series editor for the University of Utah Press’s Agha Shahid Ali Poetry Book Award. She lives in Salt Lake City.

*The Carl E. Andra Memorial Collection was started in the Weber State Library Special Collections in 1977 by Jean Andra (now Jean Andra Miller) in memory of her first husband, the late Carl E. Andra, who passed away in April of 1977.  Carl Andra was an Assistant Professor of English at WSU from 1965 until his passing.  The Collection emphasizes his favorite aspect of contemporary American and English Literature of the 20th Century, namely the work of major writers, especially poets, of that time.  The Collection now houses about 1500 volumes, and includes works from writers of major European languages in addition to those written in English.  It contains many works that are first editions, or signed by the authors, as well as works of a rare or collectible importance.  More information about the collection can be obtained from Sarah Langsdon at slangsdon@weber.edu.

As many of the themes of Coles poetry are taken from math, science and the natural world, this program is included in the campus-wide, year-long discussion, “Water Works.” For more information about this project see: http://weber.edu/waterworks/

For more information about Katharine Coles: k.coles@english.utah.edu.