The Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series for Spring 2012 presents poets R.T. Smith ((Outlaw Style, Ensemble, Trespasser) and Sarah Kennedy (Home Remedies, A Witch’s Dictionary, Consider the Lilies) on Thursday, April 19, in the Table Rock Room of the Plemmons Student Union.  The reading begins at 7:30 p.m.

Craft Talk: Historical Narrative Poems: Where Is This Voice Coming From
Table Rock Room
3:30-4:45 p.m.

R. T. Smith was born in Washington, DC, and raised in Georgia and North Carolina. His books of poetry include Outlaw Style (University of Arkansas Press, 2007), Ensemble (Talking River Press, 2006), The Hollow Log Lounge (University of Illinois Press, 2003), Brightwood (Louisiana State University Press, 2003), Messenger (2001), Split the Lark: Selected Poems (1999), Trespasser (1996), Hunter-Gatherer (1996), The Cardinal Heart (1991), and From the High Dive (1983). His books of fiction are Sherburne: A Story Cycle (Stephen F. Austin Press, 2011), The Calaboose Epistles: Stories (Iris Press, 2009), Uke Rivers Delivers (LSU Press, 2006) and Faith (1995). He is the editor of Common Wealth: Contemporary Poets of Virginia (2003) with Sarah Kennedy. Trespasser and The Cardinal Heart were both nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Poetry. Smith’s other honors include grants in literature from Arts International, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Virginia Commission for the Arts. He has taught at Appalachian State University; Auburn University, where he served as Alumni Writer-in-Residence and co-editor of Southern Humanities Review; and Washington and Lee University. He has been a resident at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre at Annaghmakerrig in Ireland, the Millay Colony, and the Wurlitzer Foundation, and in 1998 he was Artist-in-Residence at the National Historical Park at Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. R. T. Smith lives in Rockbridge County, Virginia, and has edited Shenandoah: The Washington and Lee University Review since 1995.

Sarah Kennedy is the author of six books of poems, including Home Remedies (LSU), A Witch’s Dictionary (Elixir), Consider the Lilies (David Robert), Double Exposure (Cleveland State University Press), and Flow Blue (Elixir), and her seventh, The Gold Thread, is due out from Elixir Press in 2012. A professor at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia, Sarah Kennedy has received grants from both the National Endowment for the Arts and the Virginia Commission for the Arts and is currently a contributing editor for West Branch and Shenandoah.