RIPON, Wis. – North Carolina poet, editor and novelist Alan Michael Parker will read from his award-winning work 7:30 p.m., Sunday, April 15 in the Caestecker Art Gallery in the Rodman Center For the Arts at Ripon College. The reading, which is free and open to all, will be followed by a reception and book signing.

Alan Michael Parker is the author of five collections of poems, Days Like Prose, The Vandals, Love Song with Motor Vehicles, A Peal of Sonnets, and the forthcoming Elephants & Butterflies, as well as a novel, Cry Uncle. He is also editor of “The Imaginary Poets,” co-editor of “The Routledge Anthology of Cross-Gendered Verse,” and Editor for North America of “Who's Who in 20th Century World Poetry.” His poems have appeared widely in literary journals; his prose appears regularly in journals including The “New York Times Book Review” and “The New Yorker.” He will also guest edit a forthcoming issue of “The American Book Review” on "The New Lyric."

Writing about Parker's first book, poet Richard Wilbur noted, “Alan Michael Parker's poems are full, as poems should be, of surprises which turn out to be simply true.” About a later collection, Andrew Hudgins has written, “’Love Song with Motor Vehicle’s is full of, among other things, gods. But what surprising gods they are, with their strange questions, sad visions, and circumscribed domains that never stay circumscribed. Like all of Parker's brilliant books, this one is serious fun, made of grace and intelligent good spirit.”

The recipient of a Pushcart Prize, and fellowships from the Arts and Science Council, the Eastern Frontier Society, the MacDowell Colony, and the Seaside Institute, Alan Michael Parker teaches at Davidson College, where he is Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing, and at Queens University, where he is a Core Faculty member in the low-residency M.F.A. program.

Parker lives in Davidson, NC, with his wife, the painter Felicia van Bork, and their son, Eli.

Parker's visit is being sponsored by the Ripon College Visiting Writers Series, with assistance from the Schang Family Visiting Writer Fund. For more information, contact David Graham, Department of English, at (203) 748-8722.

About Ripon College
Ripon College, founded in 1851, prepares students of diverse interests for lives of productive, socially responsible citizenship. Ripon’s liberal arts curriculum and residential campus create an intimate learning community in which students experience a richly personalized education. Ripon has been recognized as a “best value” and “Best 361 College” by The Princeton Review, a “Best Buy in College Education” by Barron’s, and among the 160 best schools in the nation by Colleges of Distinction. For more information about Ripon College, visit www.ripon.edu.

Alan Michael Parker