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Internationally Acclaimed Poet to Open Public Reading Series

Each event of the Writer's Workshop Reading Series is free and open to the public.

Each event of the Writer's Workshop Reading Series is free and open to the public.

OMAHA – Internationally acclaimed poet Erin Belieu, an Omaha native and University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) alumna, opens UNO’s 2015 Writer’s Workshop Reading Series with a public reading of her work on Wednesday, Sept. 9, at 7:30 p.m., in the Art Gallery of the UNO Weber Fine Arts Building.

The Writer’s Workshop Reading Series will bring five authors to campus this fall semester. Each event is free and open to the public. No registration is required.

Belieu has published four books of poetry, each earning rave reviews.

“Her crisp free verse has as many subcurrents as a magnetic field,” says a New York Times reviewer of Belieu’s most recent collection, Slant Six. “This is a poet who can’t abide pretension.”

Belieu’s first book, Infanta, was selected for the National Poetry Series. One Above & One Below was the winner of the Midland Authors Prize in poetry and the Ohioana prize; and Black Box was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. Her poems have appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, Slate, The Yale Review, TriQuarterly and Ploughshares, among others.

Belieu, together with poet and Creighton University professor Susan Aizenberg, coedited The Extraordinary Tide: New Poetry by American Women, an anthology of 400 poems by 100 poets that is widely used as a classroom text.

With poets Cate Marvin and Ann Townsend, Belieu co-founded VIDA: Women in Literary Arts, an organization that yearly compiles data on the premier literary journals and media outlets as a means of furthering transparency around gender equality issues in contemporary literary culture.

Currently the director of the Creative Writing Program at Florida State University and artistic director of the Port Townsend Writers' Conference, Belieu is working on a memoir about raising a child with special needs.

2015 Writer’s Workshop Reading Series Dates:

  • Sept. 9, 7:30 p.m. – Erin Belieu, poet
  • Sept. 30, 7:30 p.m. – Laleh Khadivi, novelist & filmmaker
  • Oct. 14, 7:30 p.m. – Susan Aizenberg, poet
  • Nov. 11, 7:30 p.m. – Brando Skyhorse, memoirist & journalist
  • Dec. 2, 7:30 p.m. – Lisa Sandlin, fiction writer

Each reading will be held in the Art Gallery of UNO’s Weber Fine Arts Building. For special needs or assistance, call 402.554.2406 (TTY 402.554.3799).

For media requests, please contact:

Sam Petto, UNO Media Relations Coordinator
unonews@unomaha.edu
402.554.2407

or

Charley Reed, UNO Associate Director of Media Relations
unonews@unomaha.edu
402.554.2129

Related Links

Learn More About the Writer's Workshop

Public Invited to UNO Art Gallery’s Opening Reception

Last Year's Reading Series Line-Up

About the University of Nebraska at Omaha

Located in one of America’s best cities to live, work and learn, the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) is Nebraska’s premier metropolitan university. With more than 15,000 students enrolled in 200-plus programs of study, UNO is recognized nationally for its online education, graduate education, military friendliness and community engagement efforts. Founded in 1908, UNO has served learners of all backgrounds for more than 100 years and is dedicated to another century of excellence both in the classroom and in the community.

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