Noted authors to visit local schools, conduct public readings

The Youngstown State University Poetry Center and Etruscan Press will coordinate a three-day outreach program featuring noted authors Tim Seibles and Lynn Lurie.

Seibles and Lurie will visit four local schools - East High School, Choffin Career & Technical Center, Youngstown Early College and Austintown Fitch High School - and conduct two public readings between Monday, March 27 and Wednesday, March 29.

Seibles, the current poet laureate of Virginia, is the author of seven books of poetry, including One Turn Around the Sun (2017). He is a National Book Award Finalist and Theodore Roethke Prize Winner, as well as a recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment of the Arts and the Provincetown Fine Arts Work Center.

Lurie, the author of two novels, including Quick Kills (2014), is a previous participant in the outreach program and was the 2007 recipient of the Juniper Prize for fiction.

Lurie will also speak to members of the girls’ leadership afterschool program at the YWCA of Warren, while both authors will address participants in a writing class for incarcerated women via Skype.

Seibles will present “‘Morning Where You Are’: The Poetry of Tim Seibles,” 7 p.m. Monday, March 27 at the Mahoning Valley Historical Society. The program, which is cosponsored by Etruscan Press, will feature entertainment by the Youngstown Connection, a singing and dancing group composed of local high school students. The event is free and open to the public.

Seibles will be joined by Lurie and local poet and rapper, Adrian O. Watson, for a public reading at the annual ACTION Fellowship Breakfast 9:30 a.m. Tuesday, March 28, at St. Edward Catholic Church. The program will be cosponsored by Etruscan Press and the faith-based organizing group, ACTION (Alliance for Congregational Transformation Influencing Our Neighborhoods), which focuses on a range of social issues, including crime prevention, education, immigration, and health and wellness.

The visit will conclude with a reception at the YSU DeBartolo Stadium Club, noon Wednesday, March 29. Guests at the event will include local educational and community leaders.

Housed at Wilkes University, Etruscan is a non-profit literary press working to produce and promote books that nurture the dialogue among genres, cultures and voices. Etruscan publishes books of poems, novels, short stories, creative non-fiction, criticism, translation and anthologies. For further information, please contact Thomas Welsh, outreach coordinator of the YSU Poetry Center and Etruscan Press, at tom@etruscanpress.org, or 330-792-7936.