[137]FREE OCT. 15 READING BY PULITZER–NOMINATED POET JAMES REISS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Oct. 2, 2008
CONTACT: Dr. Ron Kates, Department of English, 615-898-2595

FREE OCT. 15 READING BY PULITZER–NOMINATED POET JAMES REISS

(MURFREESBORO)—Pulitzer Prize-nominated poet James Reiss will present a free and open poetry reading at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 15, in the auditorium of the University Honors College on the MTSU campus.
A professor emeritus of English at Miami University following a 38-year career teaching poetry, Reiss lists former U.S. Poet Laureate and Consultant to the Library of Congress Rita Dove—who also served as poet laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia from 2004 to 2006—as one of his early students. His latest book is titled “Riff on Six: New and Selected Poems” (Salt Publishing, 2003) and his first novel is slated for release this fall.
His first poetry collection, “The Breathers,” Reiss’s first poetry collection, was nominated for the National Book Award, and his fourth book of poems, “Ten Thousand Good Mornings,” was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 2002.
A regular reviewer for Public Radio Exchange (PRX), where he won a 2007 Zeitfunk award for his reviewing, and an occasional script writer for public radio, Reiss’s works also have been published in magazines such as The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, The Hudson Review, The Kenyon Review, The Nation, The New Republic, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Poetry, Slate and The Virginia Quarterly Review, as well as in anthologies, textbooks and on Web sites.
Regarding Reiss, Dr. Ron Kates, associate professor English at MTSU, said, “He is an engaging reader, as well as a fine teacher. During this visit, he will lecture in my University Honors 3500 course, Re-visiting and Re-visioning the Hometown, … (and) perhaps visit with another class, give a public reading.”
Reiss has received writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ohio Arts Council and the New York Foundation for the Arts, as well as awards from the Academy of American Poets, the College English Association of Ohio, the Ohioana Library Association, the Poetry Society of America, the Pushcart Press and the Unterberg Poetry Center of the 92nd Street YMCA in New York City.
For more information on the Oct. 15 reading, please contact Kates, who will serve as host of the event, by calling 615-898-2595 or via e-mail at rkates@mtsu.edu.

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