September 9, 2019

SVSU Voices In The Valley event features pair of seasoned poets

Two critically-acclaimed poets will share selections of their works during a reading at Saginaw Valley State University next month.

Tess Gallagher and Alice Derry will read from their respective works as part of SVSU's Voices In The Valley series on Thursday, Oct. 10, at 7 p.m. in Founders Hall. Admission is free and open to the public.

Gallagher is the author of 11 books of poetry, including “Is, Is Not,” “Midnight Lantern: New and Selected Poems,” “Dear Ghosts,” and “Moon Crossing Bridge.” The New York Times Book Review wrote that Gallagher "is an excellent writer who savors the elegance of simplicity and whose work resonates and lingers."

Gallagher studied under Theodore Roethke, acclaimed poet and Saginaw native. SVSU hosts the Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize, which is awarded every three years. Gallagher was also married to the famous short-story writer Raymond Carver. She spends time in County Sligo, Ireland, and in her hometown of Port Angeles, Washington.

Derry is the author of seven books of poetry, including “Hunger,” and “Translations of Rainer Rilke's New Poems.” Li-Young Lee, a fellow American poet, writes Derry’s "poems achieve a transpersonal significance and beauty. They ask us to surrender our simplistic ideas about race and prejudice, memory and forgetfulness, and begin to uncover a new paradigm for 'human.'"

Derry taught at Peninsula College in Port Angeles, Washington, and coordinated the Foothills Writers Series.

The Voices in the Valley Reading Series brings in a wide variety of national poetry and fiction writers to SVSU each year to give public readings as well as visit English and creative writing classrooms.