National Poetry Month Readings: Local Poets (Audio)

During April 2015, in celebration of National Poetry Month, the James E. Brooks Library hosted a series of poetry readings featuring local poets. The readings were held in the library’s first floor Academic & Research Commons. The series was arranged and the readings were introduced by Gerard Hogan, Instruction Librarian at the Brooks Library. On Wednesday, April 15th, Xavier Cavazos and Katharine Whitcomb were the featured poets. Streaming audio of the program is available through Soundcloud here, or by clicking the link above. Xavier Cavazos is the author of Barbarian at the Gate, selected and introduced by Thomas Sayers Ellis as part of the Poetry Society of America’s New American Poets Chapbook Series and Diamond Grove Slave Tree, which was awarded the inaugural Prairie Seed Poetry Prize from Ice Cube Press. Cavazos teaches in the Central Washington Writing Project, Africana and Black Studies, and the Professional and Creative Writing Programs at Central Washington University. Katharine Whitcomb has degrees from Macalester College and Vermont College of Norwich University. She is the author of Saints of South Dakota & Other Poems, winner of the 2000 Bluestem Award, and two poetry chapbooks: Hosannas (Parallel Press, 1999) and Lamp of Letters (Floating Bridge Press, 2009). Winner of numerous awards and fellowships, she is Coordinator of the Writing Specialization English Major at Central Washington University