Poet Vivian Shipley will present “Poetry of Place: A Reading to Celebrate the Legacy of Jim Wayne Miller” at the 13th annual Jim Wayne Miller Celebration of Writing.

Dr. Shipley’s reading is Nov. 8 at 2 p.m. (CT) in Garrett Conference Center l03 at Western Kentucky University.  A reception and book signing follow and the event is free and open to the public.     

An award-winning poet and Kentucky native, Dr. Shipley is the Connecticut State University Distinguished Professor and the editor of “Connecticut Review” for Southern Connecticut State University. Her seventh book of poems, “Hardboot: Poems Old & New,” won the 2006 Paterson Prize for Sustained Literacy Achievement and the 2006 Connecticut Press Club Prize for Best Creative Writing.      

Dr. Shipley earned her doctorate from Vanderbilt University and her master’s and bachelor’s degrees from the University of Kentucky.    

The annual event celebrates the life and work of Dr. Jim Wayne Miller, professor of German language and literature at WKU from 1963 until his death in 1996. Best known as a poet, Dr. Miller also published short stories, a novel, a play, and numerous essays on Appalachia and related subjects.  His honors include the Thomas Wolfe Literary Award, the Zoe Kincaid Brockman Memorial Award for Poetry and the Appalachian Writers Association’s Book of the Year and Outstanding Contribution to Appalachian Literature awards.      

The celebration is sponsored by the Dean of Potter College of Arts & Letters at WKU and the Creative Writing Committee of the WKU English Department.

For more information, contact Mary Ellen Miller, (270) 745-5721, or mary.miller@wku.edu.