Writers visit schools, present reading
The Youngstown State University Poetry Center, Etruscan Press and the Friends of the Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County present a poetry reading 7 p.m. Monday, April 9, at the Youngstown Public Library on Wick Avenue in Youngstown.
Featured readers are Myrna Stone, author of “The Cassanova Chronicles” and “Luz Bones;” Lynn Lurie, author of “Quick Kills,” and Philip Brady, YSU professor and author of “To Banquet with the Ethiopians.”
The reading, which is free and open to the public, is part of an ongoing outreach effort by the YSU Poetry Center and Etruscan Press that has brought several distinguished writers to area public schools and other forums for the past dozen years.
In addition to the readings, Stone, Lurie and Brady will visit students from Youngstown Early College, Choffin Career Center and Austintown Fitch High School, as well as the Warren YWCA, over a three-day period.
Supported by the Wean Foundation, the Rayen Foundation, the Youngstown Foundation, the Ohio Arts Council, and YSU College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, the program presents “The Etruscan Awards” to YSU students currently enrolled in the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at YSU, for the best one-page original literary work in either poetry, fiction, or non-fiction. Honorariums of $500, $250, $150 and $100 will be awarded to the winners. A high school “Etruscan Prize” will be conducted for students at Fitch.
Stone is the author of five full-length books of poems, and her poems have appeared in numerous national and international literary journals and anthologies. Lurie is the author of three novels and is the recipient of the Jupiter Prize for Fiction. Brady’s is the author of three previous books of poems, a memoir, and an essay collection. He is a distinguished professor at YSU.
Etruscan Press is a non-profit literary press partnering with YSU. Since 2001, Etruscan has produced more than 80 books that nurture the dialogue among genres, cultures, and voices. For more information, contact pbrady@etruscanpress.org or 917-703-0321.