News Article

(SPOKANE, Wash.) — Robert Hass, former Poet Laureate of the United States and winner of the 2007 National Book Award for poetry, will read excerpts from his work at 7:30 p.m., Monday, Feb. 25, in the Cataldo Hall Globe Room, as part of Gonzaga University’s Visiting Writers Series. Also, he will conduct a question-and-answer session at 11 a.m. in the Foley Teleconference Room.

Both events, which are free and open to the public, are sponsored by the GU English department, Gonzaga’s office of intercultural relations and Humanities Washington. This year’s series is exceptionally strong, due in part to a $7,500 Humanities Washington grant awarded to GU Associate Professor of English Tod Marshall, who directs the series.

Hass, who earned both a master’s degree and a doctorate from Stanford University, teaches at the University of California at Berkeley. He served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 1995 to 1997 and won the National Book Award for poetry last year for his most recent collection, “Time and Materials: Poems 1997-2005.”

In addition to “Time and Materials,” Hass has published four books of poetry, including “Sun Under Wood: New Poems,” “Human Wishes,” “Praise” and “Field Guide,” which was selected for the Yale Series of Younger Poets Award. Hass is currently the Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets.

So far this academic year, the Gonzaga University Visiting Writers Series has sponsored visits by poets Herman Asarnow and Donald Revell and writers Joy Harjo and Bharati Mukherjee. Gonzaga English professor Daniel Butterworth will be the final writer in the series when he reads at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, March 26, in the Cataldo Hall Globe Room.

For more information, contact Marshall at (509) 323-6681 or via e-mail. To learn more about Hass, visit the following Web site.