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USF welcoming visiting poet Ross Gay

Sept. 4, FORT WAYNE, Ind.—Ross Gay will give a poetry reading as part of the University of Saint Francis' Sullivan Reading Series on Wednesday, Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. in the Student Center.

A poetry teacher at Indiana University in Bloomington and for the Master of Fine Arts program at Drew University in Madison, N.J., Gay is the author of the collection "Against Which," published by CavanKerry Press in 2006, and "Bringing the Shovel Down," released by the University of Pittsburgh Press in 2011. He is an editor with chapbook press Q Avenue.

His poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Atlanta Review, Harvard Review, Columbia: A Journal of Poetry and Art and Margie: The American Journal of Poetry, among other literary journals. He conducts readings across the country.

The Youngstown, Ohio native has received a Cave Canem Fellowship and a grant from the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts.

"These poems speak out of a global consciousness as well as an individual wisdom that is bright with pity, terror, and rage, and which asks the reader to realize that she is not alone—that the grief he carries is not just his own," said American poet Jean Valentine, New York State Poet from 2008-2010. "Gay is a poet of conscience, who echoes Tomas Tranströmer's ‘We do not surrender. But want peace.'"

The poetry reading is free and open to the public. High school English teachers and their students are invited to attend as an expansion of their humanities studies.

The University of Saint Francis, founded in 1890 as a comprehensive university in the Catholic Franciscan tradition, offers more than 60 undergraduate and 14 graduate programs in five schools: The School of Health Sciences, School of Arts and Sciences, Keith Busse School of Business and Entrepreneurial Leadership, School of Professional Studies and School of Creative Arts. More than 2,300 students from a broad geographic region attend USF for its academic excellence. The university has a regional campus in Crown Point, Ind.