Jane Gentry Vance, Poet Laureate of Kentucky, to read at Centre

RELEASED: November 21, 2007

DANVILLE, KY—"I can't think of any post I'd rather be called to than that of Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Kentucky," says Jane Gentry Vance of her recent appointment. Vance, an important regional voice as well as a poet of high achievement, was born and raised in Central Kentucky, which has deeply influenced her writing.

Vance will read from her work on Tuesday, Nov. 27, at 7:30 p.m. in Weisiger Theatre on Centre College's campus. This event, free and open to the public, is for anyone living in Kentucky, not exclusively for students of poetry.

Vance is the author of Portrait of the Artist as a White Pig, a collection of 50 poems, published by Louisiana State University Press in 2006; A Year in Kentucky: A Garland of Poems, a collection of 12 poems published by Press Eight Seventeen in 2005; and A Garden in Kentucky, a collection of 60 poems, published by Louisiana State University Press in 1995. Her poems have also been published in notable anthologies and journals such as the Sewanee Review, Harvard Magazine, Southern Poetry Review, the American Voice and Humanities in the South.

The position of Kentucky Poet Laureate was established in 1926, and Vance's duties include promoting the literary arts and leading the state in literary activities. Nominees for the post must reside in Kentucky, have a long association with the Commonwealth and have a critically acclaimed published body of work that is formed by living in Kentucky.

"I come from a long line of people who've lived in the same part of Kentucky for a long time—people who were born storytellers because they lived startling stories and had them to tell," Vance says. "Kentucky's long tradition of relishing localness, character and the delightful arc of stories makes us the luckiest of storytellers."

To read selected poems, visit the Kentucky Arts Council web site at http://artscouncil.ky.gov/Poet/Poems_Vance.htm.

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