Poet and playwright Jeanne Murray Walker will read from her new collection of poems, 鈥淎 Deed to the Light,鈥� 3:30 p.m. Feb. 17 in Hieronymus Lounge, 蜜桃传媒. Refreshments will be served. She also will speak in 蜜桃传媒鈥檚 chapel 10:30 a.m. Feb. 18. Both events are free and open to the public.
Walker is a professor of English at the University of Delaware whose poems and plays are widely published and performed. 鈥淎 Deed to the Light鈥� (2004, University of Illinois Press) asks probing questions about the depth of grief, letting go and the possibility of faith. John Taylor of Writing in Poetry describes her poems as 鈥渟plendid, subtly erudite, uplifting, and funny.鈥�
After Walker earned a doctorate in English, she returned to writing poetry and published five volumes, including 鈥淣ailing Up the Home Sweet Home,鈥� 鈥淐oming into History鈥� and 鈥淕aining Time.鈥� Her poetry appears in periodicals such as 鈥淚mage,鈥� 鈥淧oetry,鈥� 鈥淎merican Poetry Review,鈥� 鈥淭he Nation鈥� and 鈥淭he Christian Century.鈥� She has received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, the Colladay Award, the Prairie Schooner/Strousse Award, and was named a Pew Fellow in Poetry in 1998.
In 1990, Walker wrote her first play, which won the Washington National Theater Competition. Subsequently, her plays have been performed in Boston, Chicago and London.
Walker serves on the editorial board of Shenandoah, and served as poetry editor of Christianity and Literature and teaches workshops and reads her work frequently throughout the United States and abroad. The mother of two children, Walker lives in Philadelphia.
For more information, please contact 蜜桃传媒 English Professor Paul Willis at (805) 565-7174. For directions to campus, visit the college Web site at www.westmont.edu.