On Monday, March 27, poets Maria James-Thiaw and Bobby C. Rogers will present readings at the University of Tennessee. The event is part of UT’s Writers in the Library reading series. The mission of Writers in the Library is to “showcase the work of novelists, poets, and other literary craftsmen.” Some of the best voices on the literary scene today are invited to read.

The reading begins at 7 p.m. in the Lindsay Young Auditorium of the John C. Hodges Library. The event is free and open to the public; all are encouraged to attend.

Maria James-Thiaw began bringing poems to life on stages during the spoken word revolution of the mid-nineties. Her works have been published in several journals including Cutthroat Journal of the Arts, Black Magnolias, Love Your Rebellion, the Spirit Speaks anthology, and others. She serves on the board of Philadelphia Stories and the Writer’s Wordshop. She is the author of three poetry collections including “Talking ‘White,’” which deals with issues of class and culture while celebrating our literary history. She is a professor of writing in the Department of English and Communication at Central Penn College in Pennsylvania.

Bobby C. Rogers is Professor of English and Writer-in-Residence at Union University.  His first book, “Paper Anniversary,” won the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize. In 2015, he was named a Witter Bynner Fellow at the Library of Congress by Poet Laureate Charles Wright. His new book, “Social History,” has just been released by LSU Press in their Southern Messenger Poets series.

Writers in the Library is sponsored by the UT Libraries and the Creative Writing Program in association with the John C. Hodges Better English Fund. For more information contact Erin Elizabeth Smith, Jack E. Reese Writer-in-Residence at the UT Libraries, at esmith83@utk.edu or visit http://library.utk.edu/writers for a complete schedule of Writers in the Library readings for the 2016-2017 academic year.

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