UNCA to Host an Evening with Poet Edward Hirsch

Edward Hirsch

UNC Asheville’s Creative Writing Program has named notable poet Edward Hirsch the 2003 P.B. Parris Visiting Writer. The university will host an evening with Hirsch at 8 p.m. Monday, Oct. 20, in UNCA’s Lipinsky Auditorium. A reception and book signing will follow his presentation. A minimum $5 donation will be suggested at the door to benefit the Literacy Council of Buncombe County (admission is free to UNCA students, faculty and staff).

Hirsch is the author of six books of poems, including "Wild Gratitude," which won the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the national best seller "Responsive Reading." His most recent book, the critically acclaimed "Lay Back the Darkness," explores the descent into middle age. Hirsch has also received the Prix de Rome, a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship. A professor at the University of Houston’s Creative Writing Program for 17 years, Hirsch is now the president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Hirsch also writes a weekly column on poetry for the Washington Post Book World.

Hirsch’s appearance is co-sponsored by UNCA’s Cultural and Special Events Committee, Creative Writing Program, Center for Jewish Studies, The Friends of West Asheville Branch Library, The Trust Fund of the Asheville-Buncombe Library System and N.C. Humanities Council.

For more information, call UNCA’s Student Activities Office at 828/232-5000.

Media Contacts:

• Barbara Halton-Subkis, UNCA Student Activities Assistant Director, 828/232-5000
• Jill Yarnall, UNCA Public Information Assistant Director, 828/251-6526