BEMIDJI, Minn. – Maureen Gibbon, assistant professor of English at Bemidji State University, and Susan Hauser, professor of English at Bemidji State, will present an Honors Council Lecture entitled “Where Do Poems Come From?” on Tuesday, April 15. The lecture, which is free to the public, will be held at 7 p.m. in Hagg-Sauer 112 on the BSU campus.

Gibbon and Hauser each will read a selection of their poetry, and will discuss the origin of the poems and the process of writing them. A booklet will be distributed containing the poems to be read, along with a brief introduction commenting on the creative process.

There will be an opportunity for audience feedback through a question-and-answer session following the presentations, which will be approximately 15 minutes each.

Susan Carol Hauser is chair of the Department of English at Bemidji State. She has been writing most of her adult life and is the author of twelve published books, including poetry and essay collections and natural history books. She has received two Minnesota Book Awards and has a Master of Fine Arts in Poetry from Bowling Green State University.

Maureen Gibbon is the author of “Magdalena,” a collection of prose poems published by White Pine Press in 2007, and “Swimming Sweet Arrow,” a novel published by Little, Brown in 2000. A graduate of Barnard College and the Iowa Writer’s Workshop, she was awarded a Bush Foundation Artist Fellowship in 2001 and Loft McKnight Artist Fellowships in 1992 and 1999.

Her writing has been translated into French, German, Norwegian and Spanish and has appeared in a variety of publications, including The New York Times and on-line at http://www.nerve.com.

2008 Honors Lecture Series

• April 15: “Where Do Poems Come From?” Susan Hauser & Maureen Gibbon; Hagg-Sauer 112; 7:00 p.m.
• April 24: “The Mental Maps and Mindscapes of the American Midwest;” Mike Garrett; Hagg-Sauer 112; 7:00 p.m.

FOR YOUR CALENDAR
April 15 – 7:00 p.m. – Bemidji State University Honors Lecture: Maureen Gibbon & Susan Hauser, “Where Do Poems Come From?” Location: Hagg-Sauer 112, BSU. Admission: free.