One of Oregon’s most beloved poets will be honored at the annual William Stafford memorial poetry reading Tuesday, Jan. 19, at 7 p.m. in the Austin Reading Room of the Jereld R. Nicholson Library.
The event honors the work of Stafford, famed Oregon poet who encouraged other writers to advocate for freedom of expression. Stafford taught at Lewis & Clark College for 30 years and wrote more than 50 books prior to his death in 1993. He was a recipient of the National Book Award for Poetry in 1963 for his first major collection of poems, “Traveling Through the Dark.”
The reading will also include works relating to “Air, Water, Earth and Fire: the ancient elements on a changing planet,” the campus-wide theme for the Program for Liberal Arts and Civic Engagement (PLACE) program.
Barbara Drake, Linfield professor emerita of English, will host the evening, which will feature Linfield professors, students and local poets. Readers include Bill Siverly and Michael McDowell, editors at Windfall Magazine. Representing Linfield this year are Professors Lex Runciman, Anna Keesey, Joe Wilkins, Heather Sharfeddin and Miguel Tejada-Flores. Vera Heidman and Tor Strand, both Linfield students, along with Marit Berning, Linfield curator-in-residence and a 2015 Linfield graduate, will also read. Each person will deliver a Stafford poem and then a poem he or she wrote in the spirit of Stafford’s work.
The reading is part of a program organized by the Friends of William Stafford (FWS), an organization that works to commemorate the author’s birthday each year and advance education in local communities. The FWS is a nonprofit poetry-advocacy organization that, by keeping alive Stafford’s gift as a teacher devoted to all types of free expression, provides ongoing education in literature, particularly in poetry, in ways that will encourage and broaden the community of readers and writers. FWS also supports and helps to underwrite a variety of literary projects and events for the community.
The event is free and open to the public. The reading is co-sponsored by the Friends of Nicholson Library, the Linfield English Department and McMinnville Public Library. For more information, contact Runciman at 503-883-2583, lruncim@linfield.edu.
