Award-winning authors and an up-and-coming student writer will highlight the fall kickoff event of the University of Houston’s Poetry and Prose Reading Series. Scheduled to deliver readings are UH Creative Writing Program professor Mark Doty, UH graduate student Raj Mankad and special guest Patricia Powell.

These free readings are open to the public and begin at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 14, in the Honors College Commons on the second floor of UH’s M.D. Anderson Library.

Doty will read selections from his recent book, “School of Arts.” He has received numerous honors for his poetry and nonfiction dealing with love, loss and AIDS issues. His 1993 book of poetry, “My Alexandria,” earned the Los Angeles Times Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award and the United Kingdom’s T.S. Eliot Award. His 1996 memoir, “Heaven’s Coast,” received the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for nonfiction.

Mankad is a doctoral candidate in UH’s Creative Writing Program and will read from a memoir detailing his experiences as a public health researcher in Peru.

Powell has received several awards including the PEN/New England Discovery Award and the Bruce P. Rossley Literary Award. Her novels, “Me Dying Trial” (1993), “A Small Gathering of Bones” (1994) and “The Pagoda” (1998) tackle Jamaica’s social and sexual issues.

“Hearing a writer's voice can help readers enter into the work in a new way and encounter poetry or prose as the author means for it to be heard,” Doty said. “Audiences enjoy the surprise and energy of being read to – immersing themselves in the rhythm and power of words.”

The Poetry and Prose Reading Series is held three times a semester and is coordinated by UH Libraries with cooperation from UH’s Creative Writing Program and The Honors College.

WHAT:	Poetry and Prose Reading Series
WHEN:	5:30 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 14
WHERE:	Honors College Commons M.D. Anderson Library Entrance 1
WHO:	University of Houston