Former Goshen College professor Todd Davis to present poetry reading April 30

Poetry Reading: Todd Davis, Professor of English at Penn State University's Altoona College
Date and time: Thursday, April 30 at 7:30 p.m.
Location: Goshen College's Newcomer Center Room 19
Cost: Free and open to the public

GOSHEN, Ind. – Todd Davis, a professor of English at Penn State University's Altoona College, will present a poetry reading on Thursday, April 30 at 7:30 p.m. at Goshen College in Newcomer Center, Room 19. The event is free and open to the public.

Davis, an Elkhart, Ind., native, taught English at Goshen College from 1996 to 2002, and is a winner of the Gwendolyn Brooks Poetry Prize. He teaches creative writing, environmental studies and American literature.

Davis's poems have also been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and have appeared in such journals and magazines as The North American Review, Indiana Review, Iowa Review, West Branch, River Styx, Arts & Letters, Quarterly West, Green Mountains Review, Poetry East, Many Mountains Moving, Natural Bridge, Epoch, Rattle, The Louisville Review, The Nebraska Review and Image.

Davis received a bachelor's degree from Grace College and his master's and doctorate degrees in English from Northern Illinois University. He is the author of three books of poetry, The Least of These (Michigan State University Press, forthcoming), Some Heaven (Michigan State University Press, 2007) and Ripe (Bottom Dog Press, 2002). He is also co-editor of Making Poems: 40 Poems with Commentary by the Poets (State University of New York Press, forthcoming). His poems have been featured on the radio by Garrison Keillor on "The Writer's Almanac" and by Marion Roach on "The Naturalist's Datebook," as well as by Ted Kooser in his syndicated newspaper column "American Life in Poetry."

In addition to his creative work, Davis is the author or editor of six scholarly books, including Kurt Vonnegut's Crusade, or How a Postmodern Harlequin Preached a New Kind of Humanism (State University of New York Press, 2006) and Mapping the Ethical Turn: A Reader in Ethics, Culture, and Literary Theory (University Press of Virginia, 2001).

Immediately following the poetry reading and in connection with Davis's environmental interests, there will be the Mountaintop Removal Road Show with environmentalist Dave Cooper in Newcomer Center Room 19. This will include a 20-minute slide show about the impacts of mountaintop removal on coalfield residents, communities and the environment. It features traditional Appalachian mountain music and aerial photos of the effects on the mountains. For more information, visit: www.mountainroadshow.com.

Davis will be on the Goshen College campus teaching a poetry writing workshop class for May Term.

Editors: For more information about this release, to arrange an interview or request a photo, contact Goshen College News Bureau Director Jodi H. Beyeler at (574) 535-7572 or jodihb@goshen.edu.

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Goshen College, established in 1894, is a residential Christian liberal arts college rooted in the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition. The college's Christ-centered core values – passionate learning, global citizenship, compassionate peacemaking and servant-leadership – prepare students as leaders for the church and world. Recognized for its unique Study-Service Term program, Goshen has earned citations of excellence in Barron's Best Buys in Education, "Colleges of Distinction," "Making a Difference College Guide" and U.S. News & World Report's "America's Best Colleges" edition, which named Goshen a "least debt college." Visit www.goshen.edu.