WVU poet to give reading

Samyn is the author of six full-length collections of poetry: "Air, Light, Dust, Shadow, Distance," winner of the 2017 42 Miles Press Poetry Award (2018); "My Life in Heaven," winner of the 2012 FIELD Poetry Prize (Oberlin College Press, 2013); "Beauty Breaks In" (New Issues, 2009); "Purr" (New Issues, 2005); "Inside the Yellow Dress" (New Issues, 2001) and "Captivity Narrative" (The Journal Prize/Ohio State UP, 1999). She is also the author of two chapbooks: "The Boom of a Small Cannon" (Dancing Girl Press, 2010) and "Rooms by the Sea "(Kent State University Press, 1994). 

Her poems have appeared in Field, Colorado Review, Kenyon Review, The Ohio Review, The Journal, Third Coast, Verse, Mid-American Review, Pleiades and elsewhere. She received a Master of Arts from Ohio University and Master of Fine Arts from the University of Virginia where she was a Hoyns Fellow. Among her awards are a creative artist grant from ArtServe Michigan, the Emily Dickinson Prize from the Poetry Society of America, the James Wright Poetry Award from Mid-American Review and a Pushcart Prize. She’s also received Eberly College and WVU Foundation awards for outstanding teaching and research, the Gaston Caperton Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Writing and the Benedum Distinguished Scholar in the Humanities Award.

The reading is free and open to the public.  A book signing and reception will follow.