Gustavus Poetry Event Postponed

The “4 on the 4th” poetry event scheduled for April 4, 2005 at Gustavus Adolphus College has been postponed. The event, yet-to-be rescheduled, will feature a poetry presentation and lecture from four regional poets including Bill Holm, ’65, Gustavus Professors Philip Bryant, ’73, and Joyce Sutphen, and Gustavus Emeritus Professor John Rezmerski.

This year, April will be the tenth annual National Poetry Month, after inception by the Academy of American Poets. The event will showcase Gustavus’ talent in creative writing.

Richard Robbins, professor of English and director of the Creative Writing Program at Minnesota State University-Mankato, will emcee the event. Robbins is also the director of the Good Thunder Reading Series, a regional organization that promotes local and national authors and poets in a series of readings and interviews in Southern Minnesota.

Holm, the headliner for the event, is an accomplished Minnesota writer who is nominated for the Minnesota Book Award in poetry for his book “Playing the Black Piano.” He is the recipient of the Flanagan Award for Distinguished Contribution to Literature of the Midwest, the Minnesota Book Award in biography, and the Society of Midland Authors Best Nonfiction Book of the Year.

Sutphen’s recent book, “Naming the Stars,” is also being considered for this year’s Minnesota Book Award in poetry. She is also been awarded a Minnesota State Arts Board Grant and a Loft-McKnight Award in addition to numerous other awards for her poetry.

Bryant, a two-time recipient of the Minnesota State Arts Board Grants and a past nominee for a Minnesota Book Award, is the author of “Blue Island” and “Sermon On A Perfect Spring Day.”

Rezmerski, a former writer-in-residence at Gustavus, whose poetry has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, has earned the Devins Award and Rhysling Award. He edited “The Frederick Manfred Reader” in 1996.

For more information, contact Judy Schultz, Gustavus Bookmark, at 507.933.6017 or jdschult@gustavus.edu. The event, sponsored by the Gustavus English Department and the Gustavus Book Mark, is free and open to the public.