Three poets and a musical trio will participate in the Visiting Writers Series at Hope College on Monday, March 11, at 7 p.m. at the Knickerbocker Theatre.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
The event will feature poets Kathleen McGookey, Julie Moulds and John Rybicki, and the John Shea Trio. Poet Franz Wright was originally scheduled to read during the event, but is unable to participate due to illness.
A 1989 Hope graduate, McGookey recently completed her PhD and MFA at Western Michigan University. Recipient of a Pushcart nomination in 1998 and the Western Michigan All-University Creative Scholar Award, she has had poems published in dozens of literary journals, including the "Boston Review" and the "Mid-American Review." She recently published her first collection of prose poetry, "Whatever Shines."
Moulds and Rybicki are wife and husband poets who have dedicated their lives to bringing the wonders of poetry to everyone: teaching out of their home, and traveling far and wide to conduct workshops for juvenile delinquents, prison inmates, and emotionally and mentally impaired adults and children. Moulds, a 1985 Hope graduate, has battled non-Hodgkin's lymphoma for more than 11 years and her poems reflect her courage and indomitable spunk, grit and spirit. Rybicki's work with school children in Detroit has been written about in "Time." Poems written by "his kids" after September 11 have been read all over the world.
Rybicki's collection is "Traveling at High Speeds" and Moulds's is "The Woman with a Cubed Head," both from New Issues Press.
John Shea, a native of Grand Rapids, has performed across the Midwest for the past 20 years. This year, apart from performing monthly at the Grand Rapids Art Museum, the Trio celebrates the release of its first CD, "Works of Art."
Along with the reading, McGookey, Moulds and Rybicki will participate in a panel discussion about poetry and writing on Monday, March 11, at 3 p.m. in the Maas Center. The panel discussion is free and open to the public.
The Knickerbocker Theatre is located at 86 E. 8th St. in downtown Holland. The Maas Center is located on Columbia Avenue at 11th Street.