Missouri Poet Laureate to Appear at Rockhurst University

David Clewell, Missouri Poet Laureate and author of eight books of poems, will make his first visit to Kansas City in 12 years to appear at the final event in the 28th season of the Midwest Poets Series. He will read from his work at 7 p.m., Thursday, March 24, in Mabee Theater, Sedgwick Hall, on the Rockhurst University campus.

Clewell’s latest book, Taken Somehow by Surprise, won the Four Lakes Poetry Prize. The poet’s honors include the Felix Pollak Poetry Prize for Now We're Getting Somewhere and a National Poetry Series selection for Blessings in Disguise. His poems often appear in Poetry, The Georgia Review, Harper's andNew Letters. Clewell directs the English department’s creative writing program at Webster University.

A literary critic once wrote of Clewell, “No poet on Earth explores, reveals and revels in the big and small wonders of being human quite so compellingly as David Clewell. Not only is he a master poet, he is a profoundly humane human being, a man not afraid to feel deeply, to fall head-over-heels in love with real life in all its pop-cultural, kitschy glory, and to publicly share that love in language so infectious, personal and just plain F-U-N that your heart has little choice by to dance exuberantly along.”

Admission is $3 at the door. A reception with book signing begins immediately following the reading in the lobby of Greenlease Art Gallery, adjacent to Mabee Theater in Sedgwick Hall on the Rockhurst University campus, 54th Street and Troost Avenue. For more information, call (816) 501-4607.