Campus News

Poet will give reading as part of English department’s Lanier Speaker series

Poet Ken Irby, one of the first authors published by the influential Black Sparrow Press, will give a reading Oct. 12 at 4 p.m. in 261 Park Hall. Sponsored by the English department’s Lanier Speaker Series, the reading is free and open to the public.

Irby is the author of dozens of broadsides, chapbooks and books from 1965 to the present. Among his books are The Flower of Having Passed Through Paradise in a Dream (1968), Catalpa (1977), and Call Steps (1992). Recent titles include Studies (2001) and Ridge to Ridge (2001).

Irby had a long association with Robert Kelly and Clayton Eshleman’s legendary poetry magazine Caterpillar (1967-1973). He teaches literature at the University of Kansas, where he is a professor of English.