EUGENE–Maggie Anderson, a nationally acclaimed poet and creative writing teacher, will read at Tsunami Bookstore on Thursday, May 11, as a special addition to the University of Oregon Program in Creative Writing’s spring reading series.

Anderson’s reading, which is free and open to the public, will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the bookstore, 2585 Willamette St. in Eugene.

The author of four books of poetry, including "A Space Filled with Moving" and her latest, "Windfall," Anderson has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Ohio Arts Council, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts and the MacDowell Colony. She teaches creative writing at Kent State University, where she directs the Wick Poetry Program.

Anderson also will judge this year’s UO Undergraduate Kidd Poetry Prize. The winners of the annual Kidd Prizes for undergraduate fiction and poetry will be announced Thursday, May 18, during the reading series’ final session featuring Oregon writer Barry Lopez.

Of Anderson’s book, "Windfall," Pulitzer Prize winner Yusef Komunyakaa says it "possesses a huge, spellbinding, honed acuity and aesthetic certainty and tells an extended story without sacrificing the lyricism of good poetry. Direct and spare, this volume hits the mark."

Poet Gwendolyn Brooks describes Anderson’s work as "serious, surmising poetry, a poetry knowledgeable of image and music, pieces of energy on a taut string, and shining sanity."

For more information, call the UO Creative Writing Program, (541) 346-0544.

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