Poet Gerald Barrax to Read from his Works March 28

Chestertown, MD, March 26, 2001 — African American poet, editor and essayist Gerald Barrax will read from his works on Wednesday, March 28, 2001 at 4:30 p.m. in the Sophie Kerr Room of Washington College's Miller Library.

Barrax previously served on the English faculty of North Carolina State University at Raleigh, where he was Poet in Residence from 1993-1997. His poetry has appeared in such periodicals as Poetry, Journal of Black Poetry, Southern Poetry Review, Hambone, The Georgia Review, Callaloo, The American Poetry Review, and Prairie Schooner. Barrax has received numerous honors including The Edward Stanley Award for Poetry from Prairie Schooner, the 1993 Raleigh Medal of Arts for Extraordinary Achievement in the Arts, the Sam Regan Award for Contributions to the Fine Arts in North Carolina, the 1983 Callaloo Creative Writing Award for Non-Fiction Prose, and the Ford Foundation Graduate Fellowship for Black Americans.

His published books include From a Person Sitting in Darkness: New and Selected Poems (Louisiana State University Press, 1998), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, Leaning Against the Sun (The University of Arkansas Press, 1992), also nominated for a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, The Deaths of Animals and Lesser Gods (The University Press of Virginia, 1984), An Audience of One (University of Georgia Press, 1980), and Another Kind of Rain (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1970).

Sponsored by the Sophie Kerr Committee, the reading is free and open to the public.