KU News Release

Three KU English professors to give ‘Late Afternoon Poetry Reading’ on Feb. 15

From left to right: Joseph Harrington, William J. Harris and Kenneth Irby.

LAWRENCE — Three faculty members in the Department of English at the University of Kansas will read their poetry at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 15, at Central Court in the Spencer Museum of Art.

“A Late Afternoon Poetry Reading” will feature Joseph Harrington, William J. Harris and Kenneth Irby, all associate professors of English. The event is sponsored by the Spencer museum and is free and open to the public.

“We felt we should give a reading in our own town in addition to the ones we give elsewhere,” Harris said. “We wanted to share our work with our community, including anybody interested in contemporary poetry, both on and off campus, but especially with our students. And Saralyn Reece Hardy, the director of the Spencer, was generous enough to provide us with a place to do this.”

This will be the first time Harris has read his work locally; Harrington and Irby have read their work previously in Lawrence. All have read in other cities from New York to San Francisco.

Harrington is the author of “Poetry and the Public: The Social Form of Modern U.S. Poetics” and is working on a mixed-genre and -media account of his mother’s life, titled “Things Come On.”

Harris is the author of “Hey Fella Would You Mind Holding This Piano a Moment” and “In My Own Dark Way.” His work is published in 50 anthologies.

Irby’s recent books include “In Denmark," "Studies” and “Ridge to Ridge.” One of his poems was chosen for “The Best American Poetry, 2004.”

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