Poetry Reading April 11

Poets Yuyutsu Sharma, Judy Ray and David Ray will read from their works at 4 p.m., Friday, April 11, in the Alumni Room, Old Main, Knox College, Galesburg, Illinois. The reading is free and open to the public. It is one of a series of readings presented by Knox College to celebrate two events in April -- National Poetry Month and the Sandburg Days Festival.

Sharma is a noted poet and translator who lives in Nepal. English poet and essayist Judy Ray and her husband, American poet and author David Ray, live in Tucson. In addition to the reading, Sharma will be on the Knox campus from April 9 through 11, to meet with students in the International Club, and students and faculty in Asian Studies, Global Studies, Integrated International Studies and Creative Writing Programs.

Yuyutsu Sharma
A distinguished Nepalese author, Sharma has written seven poetry collections, including "www.waytoeverest.de: A Photographic and Poetic Journey to the Foot of Everest," a collaboration with German photographer Andreas Stimm that won the 2005 German Photo Book Award. Sharma's book of translations, "Roaring Recitals: Five Nepali Poets," was nominated by the Library of Congress as Best Book of the Year from Asia in 2001. He has received grants and fellowships from the Rockefeller Foundation, Ireland Literature Exchange, Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature and the Foundation for the Production and Translation of Dutch Literature.

Sharma has said that his most recent book, "Annapurna Poems," was inspired by David Ray. The Annapurna is a series of peaks in the Himalayan mountain range, and "the idea of publishing poems on [this particular area] isn't very popular in my part of the world... People in the region thought I was either visiting a relative or on a pilgrimage to a sacred shrine... They couldn't believe I was visiting the area for purely creative purposes," Sharma wrote on his website. "However the idea took a concrete shape in 2004 when my mentor, distinguished American poet David Ray asked me to apply for a Rockefeller Fellowship."

David Ray
David Ray has published more than 20 books. Following the release of "When," Ray's latest poetry collection, African novelist Chinua Achebe hailed him as "among the best half-dozen poets in the English language today." Ray's 2004 collection, "The Death of Sardanapalus and Other Poems of the Iraq Wars," was praised by literary critic F.D. Reeve as "the skilled work of a craftsman whose poems cry out against the barbarism of war and the stupid cruelties of those who make it." In the 1960s, Ray was one of the founders of American Writers Against the Vietnam War and co-edited, with Robert Bly, "A Poetry Reading Against the Vietnam War." Ray has received numerous literary awards, and he has taught in the United States, India, Australia and New Zealand.

Judy Ray
Judy Ray's recent essay "Jury Duty," won the 2007 Oasis Journal Nonfiction Prize from Imago Press. Her personal journey -- from growing up on an English farm without electricity, then living on five continents, and finally becoming a U.S. citizen -- is chronicled in an essay in New Letters magazine. In addition to several books of poetry and essays, her writing and photography have been published in numerous magazines.

The reading is sponsored by the Caxton Club, and the John and Elaine Fellowes Fund.

Founded in 1837, Knox is a national liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, with students from 45 states and 44 nations. Knox's 'Old Main' is a National Historic Landmark and the only building remaining from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.