Lone Star College-Montgomery’s Writers in Performance series wraps up its fall line-up with a special birthday celebration for Emily Dickinson featuring a lively reading of Emily Dickinson poems, on Thursday, December 13, at 3 p.m., in the Library Building (Building F).

The event is free and open to the public.

Various distinguished poets, including Alan Ainsworth, Sarah Cortez, Lyman Grant, and Janet McCann, will be reading Dickinson’s poems and discussing her works,

Ainsworth teaches in the English department at Houston Community College-Central. He has a bachelor’s degree from Rice University and a master’s and doctorate degree from the University of Houston. Ainsworth’s poetry and prose have appeared in The Paris Review, The Atlantic Monthly, The American Book Review, The New England Review, ArtLies and other journals.

Cortez has numerous poems, essays, and short stories in journals and anthologies in the U.S. and Europe. Winner of the PEN Texas Literary Award in poetry, she is the author of the poetry collections How to Undress a Cop (Arte Publico Pr, 2000) and editor of many anthologies including the recent award-winning You Don’t Have a Clue: Latino Mystery Stories for Teens (Pinata Books, 2011).

Grant is a writer, teacher, and educational administrator living in Austin. Currently, he serves as dean of the arts and humanities division at Austin Community College. His latest book of poems is Established Parameters (Lyman Grant, 2010).

McCann is a professor of English at Texas A&M University, where she has taught since 1969.  Her poems have appeared in New York Quarterly, Southern Poetry Review, Poetry Australia, New Letters and other literary reviews and anthologies. She received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship in 1989.  

Following the event at LSC-Montgomery, the birthday celebration will continue at The Corner Pub, located at 302 North Main in Conroe, for a gathering of poets celebration at 7 p.m. More than 20 of Texas’ finest published poets will be at the celebration, which will include readings, book sales and signings, a cake cutting and frivolities.

LSC-Montgomery’s Writers in Performance series is a reading program dedicated to bringing the most distinguished minds and their bright visions to the citizens of Montgomery County. 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, 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.

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.