LOCK HAVEN, Pa. -
As part of Lock Haven University’s Up-Write Reading Series, nationally known author Toi Derricotte will read selections from her memoir and poetry on Wednesday, Sept. 24 at 7 pm in the Multipurpose Room of the Parsons Union Building. The event is free and open to the public.

Professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh, Toi Derricotte has published four books of poems: "The Empress of the Death House," "Natural Birth," "Captivity," and "Tender," winner of the 1998 Paterson Poetry Prize. Her memoir, "The Black Notebooks," was a recipient of the 1998 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, the Black Caucus of the American Library Association Nonfiction Award and a New York Times Notable Book of the Year Award, and was nominated for the PEN Martha Albrand Award for the Art of the Memoir.

"The Women’s Review of Books" said that “The Black Notebooks” “focuses intensely and wonderfully on blackness...brilliant, devastating...Would I recommend it? Absolutely. To whom? Anyone interested in writing. In race. In human relationship.”

A judge for the Lenore Marshall Award sponsored by the Academy of American Poets, Derricotte has won two fellowships in poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts and two Pushcart Prizes. She is the co-founder of Cave Canem, the historic first workshop/retreat for African American poets.

The reading is sponsored by the English department, The Women's Studies Center, The Black Student Union, and a social equity grant from the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, Office of the Chancellor. Books will be available for purchase and signing at the event.

Additional information is available at http://aalbc.com/authors/toi.htm or http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/107.