Oregon Poet Laureate Kim Stafford holds Campus Reading, Workshop

Oregon Poet Laureate Kim Stafford will hold a campus reading, “Poetry: The World Needs Your Secrets” from Noon-1 p.m. on Wednesday, April 17 in the Russell Tripp Performance Center at Linn-Benton Community College, Takena Hall, Albany campus.

Stafford will also conduct a poetry writing workshop that afternoon from 2:30 to 4 p.m. in the boardroom of the Calapooia Center, Room 103.

Both events are free and open to the public.

Stafford serves as Oregon’s ninth poet laureate. The Oregon Poet Laureate fosters the art of poetry, encourages literacy and learning, addresses central issues relating to humanities and heritage, and reflects on public life in Oregon.

"My job as Oregon's poet laureate is to invite everyone to consider the pleasures and rewards of a writing practice,” he said. “How else can be we bring our best voices to citizenship?”

Stafford was born and grew up in Oregon. He is the founding director of the Northwest Writing Institute at Lewis & Clark College, and has written over a dozen books, including 100 Tricks Every Boy Can Do; Having Everything Right:  Essays of Place; and Early Morning. His latest collection of poetry is called The Flavor of Unity: Post-Election Poems. He has contributed to and edited several other works and has issued two CDs of his original songs. Stafford has also taught in Scotland, Italy, and Bhutan. He lives in Oregon with his wife and children.

Event is made possible by the Oregon Cultural Trust, LBCC’s Poetry Club, the Poetry Advisory Committee, and the LBCC English Department.

Kim Stafford photo by Bob Reynolds