September 14, 2015
Every fall semester Northwestern Oklahoma State University welcomes a guest speaker to present the Annual Cultural Heritage Lecture. This year’s lecture will be presented by Dr. Benjamin Myers, Crouch-Mathis professor of literature at Oklahoma Baptist University and Oklahoma’s current poet laureate.
His talk, “Reticence and Expansiveness: Oklahoma and its Poetry,” will provide discussion on the history of poetry within the state and will be presented on Monday, Sept. 21, at 7 p.m. in the Ranger Room on Northwestern’s Alva campus.
The following evening, Tuesday, Sept. 22, Myers will give a reading of his work at the Graceful Arts Gallery and Studios in downtown Alva. His reading will begin at 7 p.m.
Myers’ visit coincides with the recent publication of “The Oklahoma Poets Laureates: A Sourcebook, History, and Anthology” written by Shawn Holliday, associate dean of graduate studies and professor of English.
“It is our honor to bring Myers to Northwestern to present the Cultural Heritage Lecture,” Holliday said. “Northwestern is becoming known for its relationship with the state’s poets laureate, which began with Nathan Brown’s visit to campus two years ago. This is an on-going relationship that the university will continue to foster.”
The Annual Cultural Heritage Lecture Series is sponsored by the Social Sciences Department and the Northwestern Institute for Citizenship Studies, the Master of Arts in American Studies program, and the English, Foreign Language and Humanities Department.
For more information concerning Myer’s lecture and poetry reading, contact Holliday at (580) 327-8589 or at spholliday@nwosu.edu.
-NW-