Continuing the long-running annual tradition of sonnet and verse, Lone Star College-Montgomery’s Writers In Performance series is hosting a birthday celebration for acclaimed poet Walt Whitman, on Thursday, May 12, at 3 p.m., in college’s library (Building F). This ode to Whitman will feature C.K. Williams, award-winning writer and chancellor of the American Academy of Poets.
 
Touted as the leading authority on the life and works of Whitman, Williams will discuss his most recent non-fiction book entitled On Whitman (Princeton University Press, 2010), as well as his recently published collection of poems entitled Wait: Poems (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2010).
 
Williams has received many prestigious literary awards, including the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Prize, and other noteworthy fellowships and awards.
 
Currently, Williams is a professor of creative writing at Princeton University.
 
Later that evening, to continue the celebration, the Writers in Performance series will host Williams, along with 20 other published poets, for the annual Gathering of Poets, at 7 p.m., at the Corner Pub in downtown Conroe. The evening will feature poetry readings and book sales and signings.
 
All events are free and open to the public.
 
The goal of the Writers in Performance series is to bring thought-provoking literature and cultural diversity to the campus of LSC-Montgomery and the surrounding community. 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, contact Dave Parsons, professor of English at LSC-Montgomery, at 936.524.6537 or David.M.Parsons@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.
 
With more than 69,000 students in credit classes for fall 2010, and a total enrollment of more than 85,000, Lone Star College System is the largest institution of higher education in the Houston area, and the fastest-growing community college system in Texas. Dr. Richard Carpenter is the chancellor of LSCS, which consists of five colleges including LSC-CyFair, LSC-Kingwood, LSC-Montgomery, LSC-North Harris, and LSC-Tomball, six centers, LSC-University Park, LSC-University Center at Montgomery, LSC-University Center at University Park, Lone Star Corporate College, and LSC-Online. To learn more visit LoneStar.edu.