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An image of Marilyn Nelson
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Caldwell, N.J., March 3, 2017 – The Caldwell University English Department will celebrate national poetry month and the launching of Presence: A Journal of Catholic Poetry on April 6.   Award-winning poet Marilyn Nelson will speak at 6 p.m. in the Alumni Theatre.

The event is free and open to the public.

Nelson is a national book award finalist and recipient of the Frost Medal.  She is the author or translator of 17 poetry books and five chapbooks. In 2014, she published a memoir, named one of NPR’s Best Books of 2014, entitled How I Discovered Poetry—a series of 50 poems about growing up in the 1950’s in a military family.

English Department Chair Mary Ann B. Miller is editor of Presence, a national-level, independent journal affiliated with the English Department.  It is a print venue for poetry that is written by authors whose work is informed by the Catholic faith. The first issue of Presence is planned for this spring.

Students in Dr. Miller’s recently created Journal Editing course engage in reading poems submitted for possible publication and in writing micro-reviews of individual collections of poetry by a variety of contemporary poets.  Some students’ work will appear on the journal’s website:  www.catholicpoetryjournal.com.

The event is being hosted by the Elizabeth Michael Boyle Poetry Celebration Fund, named in honor of Sister Elizabeth Michael Boyle, O.P., emerita professor of English.