Poet Jim Daniels Opening Creative Writer's Speaker Series at Penn State Behrend September 22, 2011

Pittsburgh poet Jim Daniels will open the Creative Writer’s Speaker Series at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, on Thursday, Sept. 22.

Daniels will read from his published and forthcoming works at 6 p.m. in the college’s Larry and Kathryn Smith Chapel. An author reception will take place at 5:30 p.m.; both events are free and open to the public. Ample free parking will be available in the Junker Center lot.

Most recently, Daniels collaborated with two of his colleagues on the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University on the 2010 book “From Milltown to Malltown,” a poetic and photographic exploration of the struggling Steel Valley towns of Homestead, West Homestead and Munhall. His fourth collection of short stories, “Trigger Man,” will be published this year.

In addition to publishing numerous books of poetry, Daniels has produced two independent films and edited or co-edited four anthologies, including “Letters to America: Contemporary American Poetry on Race” and “American Poetry: The Next Generation.” His poems have been featured on Garrison Keillor’s “Writer’s Almanac,” in Billy Collins’ Poetry 180 anthologies, in Ted Kooser’s “American Life in Poetry” series, and in the Pushcart Prize and Best American Poetry anthologies. One of his best-known poems, “Factory Love,” is displayed on the roof of a race car.

Penn State Behrend’s annual Creative Writer’s Speaker Series is produced by the college’s B.F.A. in Creative Writing degree program with support from the Clarence A. and Eugenie Baumann Smith Fund. The series also will host environmental journalist Erik Reece on Thursday, Sept. 29; fiction writer Danielle Evans on Thursday, Oct. 6; and senior thesis readings by students on Thursday, Nov. 10 and 17.

For more information about the series, phone the Penn State Behrend School of Humanities and Social Sciences at 814-898-6108.