CORVALLIS, Ore. - David Biespiel and Wendy Willis will read from their most recent poetry collections on Friday, Jan. 11, beginning at 7:30 p.m. in the rotunda of the Valley Library at Oregon State University. A book signing will follow.

Published by Press53 in 2012, Willis' debut collection, "Blood Sisters of the Republic," was described as both personal and broadly American. Greg Glazner, author of "Opening the World," calls Willis "a full-out 21st-century poet - wrangler with history, domestic confidante, disrupter of narratives, down-home story teller, linguistic fire breather."

Biespiel's fourth collection, "The Book of Men and Women," received the Oregon Book Award in 2009. His book of prose, "A Thousand Faces," will be published in 2013. The University of Washington Press describes Bielspiel as "master of the long line, his words strung across its reach as tightly as beads." Former U. S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky once hailed Biespiel as a writer who has "mastered his own grand style."

Biespiel teaches creative writing and English at OSU and is president of Portland-based Attic Institute where Willis is an associate fellow. The Attic Institute is a private literary studio and haven for independent writers.

The readings are free and open to the public. The Literary Northwest Series is sponsored by the OSU Beaver Store and the OSU School of Writing, Literature, and Film, and celebrates regional literary achievement.

Source: 

Heather Brown, 719-232-1485

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