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RELEASED: Oct. 28, 2004
DANVILLE, KY—The Centre English program will sponsor a free public poetry reading by noted poet Andrew Hudgins, Humanities Distinguished Professor in English at Ohio State University, on Nov. 3 at 7 p.m. in the College's Norton Center for the Arts board room.
Known for his work in narrative verse, Hudgins has been praised for his "great storytelling gift" and "hard-driving, truth-telling lyrics." His poems often draw on events from his childhood in the rural South, and he's written about the real and imagined lives of others. Hudgins' diverse characters include a prankster who disassembles a Cadillac and rebuilds it in his attic, parents fighting over money, a lake singing to a sleepless child and Russian soldiers on the verge of execution.
Mark Lucas, Jobson Professor of English at Centre, says, "We're very excited to have Andrew Hudgins on campus for this reading. He's been an original voice in American poetry ever since his first book was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. In verse of great formal control, his poems tell unforgettable, often hair-raising stories."
Hudgins has published six books of poetry and his latest collection, Ecstatic in the Poison, was released in 2003. His poems have appeared in many literary journals, including the American Poetry Review, the Atlantic, the Paris Review, Poetry and The New Yorker.
Hudgins has received many honors including fellowships from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the Ingram Merrill Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He was awarded the Hanes Prize for poetry from The Fellowship of Southern Writers in 1995, and in 1988 he received the Witter Bynner Prize from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.
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Founded in 1819, Centre College is ranked among the U.S. News top 50 national liberal arts colleges. Centre alumni, known for their nation-leading loyalty in annual financial support, include two U.S. vice presidents and two Supreme Court justices. For more, visit http://www.centre.edu/web/elevatorspeech/
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