DENTON (UNT), Texas – Poet Brigit Pegeen Kelly will start the University of North Texas' Spring UNT Visiting Writers Series with a reading and book signing Feb. 6 (Thursday). The series, which is sponsored by Creative Writing  in the Department of English, will also include the author Steve Almond on Feb. 20 (Thursday). The writers will offer question-and-answer sessions for students prior to their readings.

At 4 p.m.  Feb. 6 (Thursday) Kelly will hold a question and answer session in Sage Hall room 230, located at 1167 Union Circle, followed by a reading and book signing at 8 p.m. in room 180 of the Business Leadership Building, located at 1307 W. Highland Street. At 4 p.m. on Feb. 20 (Thursday) Almond will hold his question and answer session in Sage Hall room 230 and a reading and book signing at 8 p.m. in the Business Leadership Building room 080 located on the ground floor.

About Brigit Pegeen Kelly

Kelly has published three books of poetry: To the Place of Trumpets, selected by James Merrill for the Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize; Song, winner of the Lamont Poetry Prize from the Academy of American Poets; and The Orchard, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Award, and the Pulitzer Prize. Kelly has been awarded a "Discovery" / The Nation award, the Witter Bynner Prize from the Academy of Arts and Letters, the Cecil Hemley Award from the Poetry Society of America, the 2008 Academy Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets, and fellowships from the Whiting Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and the Illinois Arts Council. Her work has appeared in many anthologies and literary magazines. She is currently a professor of English at the University of Illinois. In 2002, the University of Illinois awarded her both humanities and campus-wide awards for excellence.

A photo of Brigit Pegeen Kelly is available for download here.

About Steve Almond

Almond is the author of 10 books of fiction and nonfiction, three of which he published himself. His memoir Candyfreak was a New York Times bestseller. His short stories have appeared in the Best American and Pushcart anthologies. His most recent collection, God Bless America, won the Paterson Prize for Fiction and was short-listed for The Story Prize. His journalistic works have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, GQ, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and elsewhere.

A photo of Steve Almond is available for download here.