September 18: Marilyn Nelson and Sarah Pemberton Strong

The Fall season of the Ordinary Evening Reading Series begins with a pair of exciting writers: former Connecticut poet laureate Marilyn Nelson and novelist and poet Sarah Pemberton Strong.

Poet Marilyn Nelson is the author or translator of twelve books and three chapbooks. Her books have won many honors, including three finalist honors for the National Book Award, the Poets' Prize, the Boston Globe/Hornbook Award, the Flora Stieglitz Straus Award, one Newbery and two Coretta Scott King honors, finalist honors for the Los Angeles Times Book Award, the American Scandinavian Society Translation Prize, and the Lion and the Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American Poetry. Nelson is a professor emeritus of English at the University of Connecticut; founder and director of Soul Mountain Retreat, a small writers’ colony; and the Poet Laureate of the State of Connecticut from 2001 through 2006.

Sarah Pemberton Strong is the author of a novel, Burning the Sea, which was on the Boston Globe Top 10 bestseller list in 2002. Her poetry has appeared in The Southern Review, Spoon River Poetry Review, Cream City Review, Atlanta Review, The Sun and elsewhere. She teaches poetry workshops at Arts and Literature Lab in New Haven and is currently completing her second novel, The Fainting Room. Her website is www.sarahpembertonstrong.com.