Award-winning poet to read at the University of Richmond Feb. 5

January 26, 2009

American poet Jennifer Atkinson will read from her new book of poetry, "Drift Ice," at the University of Richmond Feb. 5 at 8 p.m. in Weinstein Hall's Brown-Alley Room. Her appearance is part of the English Department Writers' Series. It is free and open to the public.

Atkinson, a recipient of the prestigious Pushcart Prize, has published three books of poetry. Her first collection, "Dogwood Trees," was named winner of the University of Alabama Poetry Prize, and more recently, "The Drowned City" received the Samuel French Morse Poetry Prize.

Her latest work, "Drift Ice," examines the ecobalances of Alaska, Sri Lanka and Long Island Sound in the context of devastations such as the Exxon-Valdez oil spill and the 2004 tsunami. Her poems investigate the interplay of the natural and spiritual worlds, and examine poetry itself as an ecosystem.

A graduate of Wesleyan University and the University of Iowa, Atkinson teaches creative writing at George Mason University.

For more information, call (804) 289- 8287.