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Happy Birthday Walt! College’s Celebrates Poet’s Birthday with Annual Gathering

Continuing the long-running annual tradition of sonnet and verse, Lone Star College-Montgomery’s Writers In Performance series hosts a birthday celebration for acclaimed poet Walt Whitman, on Thursday, May 9, at 3 p.m., in the Health Science Center (Building B), Room 102.

A panel of three poets, professors, and Whitman enthusiasts—Jerry Bradley, Jerome Loving, and Daniel Rifenburgh—will read excerpts of Whitman’s work and discuss his life and poetry style.

Bradley is a professor of English at Lamar University, poetry editor at Concho River Review, and author of five books, including The Importance of Elsewhere, Simple Versions of Disaster, and The Movement: British Poets of the 1950s. His poetry has appeared in the New England Review, Modern Poetry Studies, Poetry Magazine, and Southern Humanities Review.

Loving is a distinguished professor of English at Texas A&M University and a member the Texas Institute of Letters. He has published biographies on Whitman, Twain, and Dreiser, and his latest biography, Confederate Bushwhacker: Mark Twain in the Shadow of the Civil War, will be published this fall.

Rifenburgh’s work has appeared in Poetry, The New Republic, Paris Review, Shenandoah, New Criterion and Southwest Review. His first book, Advent, was published in London in 2002 and received the Natalie Ornish Award from the Texas Institute of Letters. He has also received the Robert H. Winner Award from the Poetry Society of America and a Dobie-Paisano Fellowship from the University of Texas. Rifenburgh holds a master of arts from the University of Florida.

Later that evening, to continue the celebration, the Writers in Performance series will host many other published poets and Whitman fans for the annual Gathering of Poets, at 7 p.m., at the Red Brick Tavern in downtown Conroe. The evening will feature poetry readings and book sales and signings from a multitude of poets including, Mike Baldwin; Bradley; Michelle Brown; Chris Carmona; Sarah Cortez; Dede Fox; John Gorman; Lyman Grant; Ken Jones; Sharon Klander; Loving; Janet Lowery; Janet McCann; Dave Parsons; Rifenburgh; Mellissa Studdard; Chuck Taylor; and Randy Watson.

All events are free and open to the public.

Writers in Performance is a reading program dedicated to bringing the most distinguished minds and their bright visions to the citizens of Montgomery County through thought-provoking literature and cultural diversity. The series’ events are made possible by the partnership between the Montgomery County Literary Arts Council, LSC-Montgomery Library, the Conroe Commission on the Arts and Culture, Good Books in the Woods, LSC-Montgomery’s Academy for Lifelong Learning, and SWIRL, LSC-Montgomery’s magazine of student art and writing.

For more information, visit www.LoneStar.com/WIP; or contact Dave Parsons, adjunct professor of English at LSC-Montgomery, at (936) 524-6537 or David.M.Parsons@lonestar.edu; or contact Cliff Hudder, professor of English at LSC-Montgomery, at (936) 273-7399 or Clifford.W.Hudder@LoneStar.edu.

LSC-Montgomery is located at 3200 College Park Drive, one-half mile west of Interstate 45, between Conroe and The Woodlands. For more information about the college, call 936.273.7000, or visit www.LoneStar.edu/montgomery.

Lone Star College System has been opening doors to a better community for 40 years. Founded in 1973, LSCS remains steadfast in its commitment to student success and credential completion. Today, with 78,000 students in credit classes, and a total enrollment of more than 90,000, Lone Star College System is the largest institution of higher education in the Houston area and the fastest-growing community college system in the nation. Dr. Richard Carpenter is the chancellor of LSCS, which consists of six colleges including LSC-CyFair, LSC-Kingwood, LSC-Montgomery, LSC-North Harris, LSC-Tomball and LSC-University Park, five centers, LSC-University Center at Montgomery, LSC-University Center at University Park, Lone Star Corporate College, and LSC-Online. To learn more visit LoneStar.edu.

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