Poet Dave Smith To Keynote National Library Week April 13

Contact: George Bain, (740) 593-2713, bain@ohio.edu

ATHENS, Ohio (April 8, 2000) -- Poet Dave Smith will visit Athens Thursday, April 13 for presentations at Alden Library and the Athens Public Library as part of National Library Week activities April 9-15.

Smith and Ohio University Distinguished Professor of English Bob DeMott will speak at 3:30 p.m. in Alden Library's Friends of the Library Room (Alden 319) on "The Ingredients for Literary Friendship." Smith will give a reading from his works at 6:30 p.m. at the The Athens Public Library, 30 Home St. He will be available to sign books after both programs and copies of his books will be on sale at both sites.

Smith is the Boyd Professor of English at Louisiana State University in Baton Rogue and co-editor of the "Southern Review" literary magazine. He is the author of nearly 20 books including "Floating on Solitude" (1997) and "The Wick of Memory: New and Selected Poems, 1974-2000" that will be released later this spring.

Smith met DeMott while completing a doctorate in English at Ohio University in 1976. Alden Library will release "Dave Smith: A Literary Archive" by DeMott during the week. The book includes an essay by DeMott on his long-term friendship with Smith and a checklist of Smith's publications, many inscribed by the poet, that DeMott collected over more than 20 years.

The Archives & Special Collections department has acquired the publications for the library and an exhibit of some of the works is on display on the fifth floor of the library. Smith's appearance at the Athens Public Library is part of "National Poetry Month at the Libraries," a month-long series of programs on poetry in April.

Smith also will be interviewed on the "Morning Show" with WOUB's Connie Stevens, speak to a group in the university's English Department and do a session for the Telecommunications Center's "Wired for Books" website as part of his visit.

The programs are made possible in part through a grant from the Ohio Arts Council, a state agency that supports public programs in the arts. Besides the two friends groups and the two libraries, sponsors for the activities are the Ohio University English Department, the Telecommunications Center, the Little Professor Book Center, the Athens NEWS, and the Appalachian Center for Economic Networks, Inc. (ACEnet).