Submitted by Saint Martin’s University
WHAT: The Les Bailey Writers Series returns for its fifth installment at Saint Martin’s University on October 4, with a presentation from poet Kathleen Flenniken entitled “A Case of–and for–Poetry.” The Les Bailey Writers Series is presented by the University’s English Department, with funding from the Leslie G. Bailey Endowment; the event is free and open to the public. The endowment honors the gifted and inspiring Saint Martin’s University Professor of English Les Bailey, Ph.D. A 1964 Saint Martin’s alumnus, Bailey returned to his alma mater in 1975 as a faculty member and later became chair of the English Program and dean of humanities. He continued to teach until his death in 2010.
WHO: Kathleen Flenniken studied and worked as a civil engineer and didn’t discover poetry until her early 30s. Her collection “Plume,” published by University of Washington Press in 2012, is a meditation on the Hanford Nuclear Site and her home town of Richland, Washington. The collection won the Washington State Book Award and was a finalist for the William Carlos Williams Award from the Poetry Society of America and the Pacific Northwest Book Awards. Her first book, “Famous,” which was published by University of Nebraska Press in 2006, won the Prairie Schooner Book Prize in Poetry and was named a Notable Book by the American Library Association. Her other honors include a Pushcart Prize and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and Artist Trust. She was the 2012 – 2014 Washington State Poet Laureate. She currently serves on the board of Jack Straw, an audio arts studio and cultural center. Flenniken holds a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from Pacific Lutheran University, as well as bachelor’s and master’s degrees in civil engineering.
WHEN: Thursday, October 4, 7:00 p.m.
WHERE: Saint Martin’s University Norman Worthington Conference Center, 5300 Pacific Avenue SE, Lacey, WA 98503
Saint Martin’s University is an independent, four-year, coeducational university located on a wooded campus of more than 300 acres in Lacey, Washington. Established in 1895 by the Catholic Order of Saint Benedict, the University is one of 13 Benedictine colleges and universities in the United States and Canada, and the only one west of the Rocky Mountains. Saint Martin’s University prepares students for successful lives through its 26 majors and ten graduate programs spanning the liberal arts, business, education, nursing and engineering. Saint Martin’s welcomes more than 1,300 undergraduate students and 250 graduate students from many ethnic and religious backgrounds to its Lacey campus, and more students to its extended campus located at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Visit the Saint Martin’s University website at www.stmartin.edu.
