The English Department at Western Kentucky University will be hosting two literary events in October—the Jim Wayne Miller Celebration of Writing and a reading by Kentucky native Sallie Bingham.

The 15th annual Jim Wayne Miller Celebration of Writing will be Oct. 23 at 2 p.m. in the Garrett Conference Center. The Homecoming event will feature a reading and discussion by poet Frederick Smock. Smock is chair of the English Department at Bellarmine University, where he received the 2005 Wyatt Faculty Award. He was the founding editor of The American Voice, the international literary journal published in Louisville for 15 years.

Smock holds degrees from Georgetown College and the University of Louisville. He has received an Al Smith fellowship in poetry, and won the 2002 Henry Leadingham Award for Poetry from the Frankfort Arts Foundation.

His latest work is The Deer at Gethsemani: Eclogues. A reception and book signing will follow the reading.

The celebration is named for Miller, a native of Asheville, N.C., who was a 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.

Bingham, a writer, teacher, feminist activist and philanthropist now living in Santa Fe, N.M., will be reading Oct. 27 at 7 p.m. in Cherry Hall 125. She will read selections from her latest book, Mending: New and Selected Stories. She has also published six additional novels, three collections of poetry, numerous plays (produced off-Broadway and regionally), and the well-known family memoir, Passion and Prejudice (Knopf, 1989).

Bingham holds an honorary degree from WKU and is a frequent visitor to campus. Earlier in the day, she will give a presentation at the Women’s Studies lunch meeting for which reservations must be made by Oct. 9 by contacting Mary Ellen Miller at mary.miller@wku.edu. That presentation will be from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Faculty House.