For immediate release: Oct. 15, 2008

BLOOMSBURG — Poet Leslie Anne Mcilroy will present her works during the Big Dog Reading Series of Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. The reading on Wednesday, Oct. 29, at 7 p.m. in the Kehr Union Hideaway also will feature guitarist Don Bertschman and is free and open to the public.

Mcilroy, based in Pittsburgh, won the Word Press Poetry Prize in 2001 for her full-length collection, “Rare Space.” Her poems have appeared in journals and anthologies such as American Poetry: The Next Generation, The Emily Dickinson Award Anthology and The Mississippi Review. Currently Mcilroy is working as a copywriter.

The Pittsburgh City Paper praised Mcilroy for how she “offers sadness without regret, hope without nostalgia, witness without bitterness” in her newest book, “Liquid Like This.”

The Big Dog Reading Series is funded by the Bloomsburg University English Department and College of Liberal Arts.
For more information about the program, contact Jerry Wemple, associate professor of English, at (570) 389-4881.

Bloomsburg University is one of 14 universities in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. The university serves approximately 8,000 students, offering comprehensive programs of study in the colleges of Professional Studies, Business, Liberal Arts and Science and Technology.