BEMIDJI, Minn. – Poet Sharon Chmielarz will headline a Friday, Feb. 29 reading and reception for women whose works were published in the 2007 and 2008 editions of “Dust and Fire,” Bemidji State University’s anthology of women’s writing and art.

Chmielarz also will hold a reading at noon in the Crying Wolf Room of the Hobson Memorial Union.

From 7-9 p.m., a reading and reception for Dust and Fire contributors will be held at the American Indian Resource Center (AIRC). Following an introduction by Chmielarz, authors featured in the anthology are invited to read their entries to the group.

Chmielarz was born in Mobridge, South Dakota in 1940. She received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Minnesota and has worked as a teacher in Long Lake, Minn. since 1962.

Her career as a writer began in the late 1970s after taking writing classes and attending workshops. She has published children’s picture books, and several volumes of poetry including “The Rhubarb King,” “The Other Mozart,” “Different Arrangements” and “But I Won’t Go Out In a Boat.”

Seventy nine individuals had works selected for the 22nd “Dust & Fire,” which was produced by the BSU Department of English and the Women’s Studies Program. The anthology features fiction, non-fiction, poetry and art from women residing in Minnesota or its contiguous states and provinces.

Dust and Fire’s 2007 reading and reception was cancelled due to inclement weather. Any contributor to the 2007 edition of Dust and Fire is invited to attend this year’s dual celebration and read her work from last year’s anthology.

Copies of the 2007 and 2008 editions of Dust and Fire will be available for purchase at the reception.

Both the noon reading at the Crying Wolf Room and the 7 p.m. reading and reception at the AIRC are open to the public.

For more information about the reception, please contact Tamara Hartung at tamera.hartung@st.bemdijistate.edu. Information regarding Dust and Fire is also available on the Web at http://www.bemidjistate.edu/academics/publications/dust_and_fire, or by contacting Faculty Editor Susan Hauser at (218) 755-3355, or via e-mail shauser@bemidjistate.edu.

FOR YOUR CALENDAR
Feb. 29 – Public reading and reception for “Dust and Fire,” an anthology of women’s writing and art published by Bemidji State University. noon: Poetry reading by Sharon Chmielarz at the American Indian Resource Center; 7-9 p.m., reading and reception for artists featured in “Dust and Fire.” Information: (218) 755-3355.