Verse Like Water: the visiting poet program of Central Lakes College, in collaboration with The Crossing Arts Alliance, presents former U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Simic at noon on March 5th in the CLC Chalberg Theater. This poetry reading is free and open to the public, and will be followed by a book signing/meet and greet, as well as a workshop at 1:30pm for area writers, artists, and anyone interested in hearing Mr. Simic speak informally about the necessity of poetry in our lives.
Verse Like Water began in the fall of 2012. So far we have hosted Li-Young Lee, the Palestinian-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye, and the inaugural poet Richard Blanco. These events were graciously funded by Five Wings Regional Arts Council.
Last fall, Verse Like Water earned a Minnesota State Arts Board grant for $65,000. This obviously provides exciting funding across 2014, and in addition to Simic VLW will offer central Minnesota first class literary events featuring Billy Collins (April 29th), Robert Hass (October 29th) and Tracy K. Smith (November 21st).
